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Valley Christian graduates reflect while looking to a positive future ‘The end of an era’
By ELISE McKEOWN SKOLNICK
AUSTINTOWN
Rain didn’t dampen the spirits of 49 Valley Christian High School graduates and their family and friends.
Parents and others carried balloons and flowers for the graduates. The graduates adjusted caps and tassels and chatted with friends before the commencement ceremony Sunday at Highway Tabernacle Church.
“This is my last moment with my friends,” co-valedictorian Marissa Davis said. “This is the last true moment we’ll have together. I’m just embracing it because after now, we really won’t see each other anymore.”
Co-valedictorian Laura Sylvester agreed.
“It’s very bittersweet because we’ve all been together forever,” she said.
She’s gone to school with most of her fellow graduates since first grade.
“So it’s the end of an era but the beginning of a new one,” she added.
Both say they will miss the sense of family at school.
“We’re like one big family,” Davis said. “And we always have fun.”
But they are looking forward to more independence in the future.
Davis will attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, with a major in sociology. Her goal is to become a lawyer.
Though Sylvester is staying close to home – she will major in chemistry as a pre-med student at Youngstown State University – she will live on campus.
Jada Edwards believes her Valley Christian education prepared her for her next step: attending Choffin Career and Technical Center to become a dental hygienist.
“I feel like a lot of teachers helped me get as far as I am now,” she said.
Though she was “extremely excited” for graduation, she will miss some parts of high school.
“I’m going to miss a lot of my teachers,” she said. “I’m going to miss the activities I was involved in in school.”
Among other things, Edwards participated in cheerleading, track and volleyball.
The commencement speaker told them and their fellow graduates they are “awesome young people.”
“I hope that you believe that you are great young people,” the Rev. Al Yanno, pastor of Metro Assembly of God in Youngstown, told the students.
Some might feel they are great, some might not, he acknowledged.
“I want you to know greatness often comes in its raw form,” he said. “We’re all becoming great. We’re all working on it.”
However, he pointed out, greatness isn’t about what you have or don’t have.
“It’s about what you’re going to do with what God gave you,” he said.