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Elkhorn grads encouraged to take on challenges

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Elkhorn Area High School graduation, 2011

Graduation for the Elkhorn Area High School class of 2011 was held June 9, 2011.

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ELKHORN — Yellow roses adorned the purple and gold gowns of graduating Elkhorn Area High School seniors on a cool Thursday evening.

It was standing room only at the ceremony where graduates were rock stars.

Extended bleachers on three sides of the school’s massive gymnasium were packed. Not an empty folding chair on the gym floor could be found.

Spectators stood during the processional and loudly cheered as soon-to-be graduate Megan Maurina welcomed them.

Megan urged her classmates to push the limits of their abilities throughout their lives.

Kyle Banta took Megan’s message to heart in his address to the gathering’

“I think we’ve all served our sentence,” Banta said.

He turned serious by saying that graduation was a symbol of growth and not a pinnacle of achievement.

Banta shared a few lessons he had learned. Math does not translate to happiness, and he’s learned to write run-on sentences.

He closed by telling classmates: “Go big or go home.”

Samantha Huddleston encouraged classmates to follow the path that makes them happy and “you will be successful.”

“In order to achieve all that’s possible, we must try to achieve the impossible,” Huddleston said. “Congratulations class of 2011. We finally made it.”

Class president Jacob Mountford had the last word among student speakers.

“We’ve morphed from awkward teenagers to the suave individuals that we are today,” he said.

Mountford told classmates not to recall their high school careers with cynicism, but to remember that someone, a teacher or friend, changed their lives by helping them through school.

“Take that guidance with you,” Mountford said.

High school principal Tina Bosworth told the gathering about the culture of a high school lunchroom, which includes the possessiveness of students about their chosen and never-changing places at lunch tables.

When the lunchroom was repainted and the lunch tables were shifted to new configurations during the last school year, complaints about lost territory rippled through the school and into Bosworth’s office, she said.

The principal told graduates that they must become accustomed to change, regardless if it’s in a lunchroom or in their lives.

After the presentation

of diplomas, graduates spilled out of the school into the

cool evening for pictures,

hugs, broad smiles and a chance to share of prep school memories.

Paul Erskine said his favorite memory was attending the homecoming assembly his freshman year.

Chris Debrabant recalled with humor a friend running around an assembly dressed as the Golden Snitch, a flying gamepiece used in the game Quidditch in Harry Potter movies.

The friend, Cody Olsen,

said his favorite time was “everyone getting rowdy during lunch.”

Amber Farber said her favorite event was meeting a long-lost cousin, Joelle Jankowski, at a funeral and being invited to attend her cousin’s high school graduation from Elkhorn last year.

Jose Duran said his fondest memories were “hanging out” with friends at lunch and after school.

Maggie Foley said tennis season her sophomore year and junior prom captured her memories because her friends were part of both.

Daniel Johnson said one of her favorite memories was making friends at lunch and another was of junior prom where “all of the girls got to dress up and become princesses for a day.”

Johnson’s friend, Robyn Moe, said assemblies before dances and her involvement on student council where she met new people were the highlights of her high school days.