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Niles McKinley High School graduates celebrate commencement
160 seniors receive diplomas at ceremony
WARREN
Graduating seniors from Niles McKinley High School celebrated their commencement Wednesday night among friends, family and school staff at the W.D. Packard Music Hall in Warren.
The school’s 2017 graduating class numbers 160 seniors.
Throughout the evening, the McKinley High School Band performed, including the traditional “Pomp and Circumstance” classically associated with graduation ceremonies.
In addition to the band, a choral group from the school, the “Belles and Beauxs,” performed.
Valedictorians Brendan Busse, Austin Cline and Irene Denney addressed the audience during the ceremony.
Busse shared that his grandmother’s fight with serious illness inspired him to pursue medicine after college, and thanked the various people who helped him – and his class – through the year.
Cline compared the graduates to dynamite – small, but capable of making an incredible impact. His cap was decorated with an image of the Marvel comics character Iron Man’s iconic helmet, and the words, “Anyone can be a hero.”
Denney encouraged the class, saying, “Dragon pride and fire will always be in our hearts.”
The class Salutatorians, Caitlin Seifert, Jillian Swauger and Hannah Ward, were also given an opportunity to address their class and the audience, offering thanks to those who helped them throughout their high-school careers.
Out in the crowd, Angela Sanders watched for her son, Jaylon, to cross the stage and claim his diploma.
A 23-year Air Force service member, Angela and Jaylon moved around frequently due to her deployments.
When Jaylon was 6, Angela was deployed to Spain, and later France and Portugal as well. Eventually the mother and son returned to Virginia, but before long Angela was deployed again – this time to Qatar – and Jaylon went to live with his grandmother to finish his schooling, culminating in his graduation Wednesday night.
Though the frequent moves created some adversity for the duo, Angela said she is “super proud” of her son.
“There were a lot of challenges, but he made it and he’s been picked up for college, so I couldn’t be more proud,” she said.
Jaylon is heading to John Carroll University to play football and study either sports medicine or business management and is the recipient of a $21,000 merit award from the university.