Seniors say goodbye to South Range High, ‘hello world’

May 29, 2016 at 12:02a.m.

NORTH LIMA

2016 South Range Graduation

On Saturday night, 111 South Range High School seniors proudly walked across a stage in their school gymnasium and accepted a certificate into adulthood – a high school diploma.

Ten valedictorians were tasked with coming up with speeches to say hello to adulthood and goodbye to their childhoods.

Valedictorian Jordan Campanelli said she was both sad and excited to say goodbye to South Range and hello to John Carroll University, where she will be studying biology and neuroscience.

Ryan Sympson, valedictorian, said high school had been “quite the ride,” but he was even more excited to start another at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, on a football scholarship.

Class President and Salutatorian Mollie Pierson expressed similar feelings.

“It’s about saying goodbye to our world and saying hello to the world,” she said.

Pierson said she has always wanted to follow a rule told to her when she was young – to leave the world a better place than it was when she was put on it.

“We have to be kind to the earth and the people around us,” she said.

She will be going to the University of Tampa in Florida in the fall and said she will miss Handel’s ice cream the most.

Superintendent Dennis Dunham stressed the importance of not missing out on life, now that the seniors are about to start theirs.

“It’s a big wonderful world out there,” he said. “Now is the time to do things and to go places.”

Junior Jordan DeSantis sang “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” by Rodgers and Hammerstein, to help encourage the class to follow Dunham’s advice.

She completed it by singing, “senior class of 2016, you’ll never walk alone.”