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Graduation ceremonies galore: Ursuline, Mooney, Struthers, Girard, Lowellville
YOUNGSTOWN
The 109 members of the Ursuline High School Class of 2017 received a combined $8.5 million in academic and athletic scholarship offers.
At the top of the class, which Ursuline Principal Matthew Sammartino described as “very bright, very involved in school, and best of all, just good people,” are valedictorians Marie Bond and Aaron Coates and salutatorian Patrick Conway.
“The Class of 2017 will all be missed,” Sammartino said before the commencement ceremony Sunday at Stambaugh Auditorium.
The commencement speaker, a 2007 graduate of Ursuline, was Vera Herbert, a Hollywood screenwriter who is a writer and supervising producer for the critically acclaimed “This Is Us” on NBC.
Herbert, whose father, Dr. Robert Herbert, was speaker at her commencement a decade ago, urged the graduates to set goals and be willing to work hard to achieve them.
Vera Herbert, who attended the University of North Carolina School of Arts to study screenwriting, spent her senior year in Los Angeles working as the assistant to the creator of “AWKWARD” on MTV during its first season and, after graduation, spent two more seasons on the show.
She offered the graduates three specific things that helped her in her career.
First, she said: “It’s OK to be the dumbest person in the room. If you surround yourself with people who know more than you, you will begin to learn and be inspired.”
Second: Learn to overcome failure.
“Failing is not the end of the world. Keep popping up and enjoy the game. The work and experience gained in my failures made me a more deft writer,” she said.
Finally, Herbert urged the graduates to be grateful for the people who helped them along the way – parents, teachers, family and friends; and for the losses from which they learned.
“Your moment is right now. Make your story but remember where you came from. Good luck and God bless you and go Irish,” Herbert said.
The valedictorians and salutatorian did not address their classmates, but during interviews before commencement, they showed why they are at the top of their class.
Studying engineering at Notre Dame University is the next step for Bond, of Howland, who praised Ursuline for not only teaching academics but what it means to live a good life.
A member of the school’s varsity tennis team and active in several organizations, Bond said: “We shouldn’t forget all the invaluable lessons we learned at Ursuline, and I definitely want to thank my parents who made this opportunity a reality.”
Coates, of Niles, who will study mathematics and economics at Northwestern University, said commencement is special because it is one last time to be together as a class.
“I will miss the close bonds between my fellow students and the teachers,” Coates said.
Conway, of Canfield, who also is slated to study engineering at Notre Dame, said Ursuline is a family. “I made so many great friends who will stay my friends the rest of my life,” he said.
Jennifer Woodford of Austintown, who plans to study biology at Ohio Dominican University, represents the fourth generation of her family to attend Ursuline – following her great-grandmother, grandmother and mother – and is the youngest of four siblings to graduate from Ursuline.
Woodford, who was active in numerous organizations and was captain of the soccer team, said Ursuline “is a good place to get a great education, meet great people and be prepared for the future.”