GRADUATION ELATION

Boardman grads start new journey

By ELISE McKEOWN SKOLNICK

news@vindy.com

BOARDMAN

At commencement Sunday, Morgan Bindis, student council president, told her classmates to take every opportunity that comes their way.

“This is your life,” she told the Boardman High School Class of 2016. “The most important decision you will ever make is your next one. Everything you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”

This class is special, she added.

“We’re all determined to fulfill our goals,” Morgan said.

Elena Arduin, a member of the class, is ready to make her goals happen.

“I’m really excited to graduate,” she said.

She’ll miss Boardman, she added, but is ready for college. She will attend Miami University in the fall to study public health. She plans on being a physician’s assistant.

“I’m more excited than nervous,” Elena said.

The teachers have prepared us, she noted.

“They really care about their students,” she said.

Elena took part in many extracurricular activities while in high school, including band, orchestra, drama club, Spanish club, National Honor Society and science club. She will check out similar activities in college.

“I really enjoyed [extracurricular activities] here,” she said.

She will miss the people at Boardman High School the most.

“Because I spent so much time with all of them, I will be sad not seeing them,” she said.

Fellow classmate Alexa Caraballo also was ready to graduate.

“It’s going to be weird leaving it behind after 13 years, but I’m excited,” she said.

In the fall, she will head to Ohio State to study speech and hearing science. Her goal is to become a speech therapist.

Alexa said she feels the many honors classes she took and the time-management skills she learned from her teachers have prepared her for college.

Her extracurricular involvement also made a big impact.

She played soccer and softball and was a member of NHS, emerging leaders and Big and Little Spartans.

“I would not be where I am today without all those things,” Alexa said.

These activities, especially emerging leaders, taught her how to interact with different people, she said. In emerging leaders, she worked with the elderly in nursing homes and with young children in elementary school.

Both Elena and Alexa graduated with a 4.0 grade-point average.