Valedictorian

More than 16,000 students have graduated from South Hagerstown High School since it opened its door in 1956, Assistant Principal Matthew Mauriello told the audience Friday as this year's graduates were poised to receive their diplomas. “I hope you all cry later and smile now ... and hold onto this moment before it slips through our fingers,” Valedictorian Maranatha Teferi told her classmates gathered in the school's gymnasium. As for their futures, Teferi advised: “Meet your challenges, pursue your goals, figure out who you are.” Teferi was one of about 36 students to receive scholarship offers, which Assistant Principal Sherry L. Hamilton said totaled about $2.5 million.

It was an unseasonable sweltering day on Saturday for Mercersburg Academy's 119th commencement. But there was a palpable excitement in the air not only as the graduates embarked on a new phase in their lives, but also because this year's commencement speaker was Madeleine Albright, the first female U.S. secretary of state. Head of School Douglas Hale outlined a list of Albright's accomplishments, including receiving the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, from President Obama on Tuesday.

My job is pretty cool. Not everbody gets the chance to say that. True, it's not perfect. No job is, unless it has something to do with ... say ... test driving Porsches at Indy, covering the Green Bay Packers or supervising the Sports Illustrated swimsuit shoot. But until one of those jobs opens up, I'm good with the day-to-day news gathering we do here at The H-M. One of the coolest things I do is deal with high school and college graduations. (Reporters coast-to-coast are rolling their eyes.)

On May 23, at 1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore, Alexandria Volkening of Boonsboro experienced her first graduation ceremony. Volkening, who was homeschooled from first through 12th grades, was honored as the Class of 2011 valedictorian of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Standing in front of more than 5,000 students, faculty members and family, she delivered a commencement address that highlighted the great diversity at UMBC. She challenged her peers to continue to reach out of their comfort zones and combine their voices together to tackle today's increasingly multidisciplinary problems.

Letters to the Editor 2/5 GOP stole power; we want our country back To the editor: We went to the inauguration parade. We were there to take a strong stand for honesty, for love of country, for the future of our children and all the children of the world. We did not wear signs or posters. There were many people that went to show our distrust of this new administration. This administration started out by stealing their way in. They lied their way in. They stole the credibility of the Supreme Court.

HAGERSTOWN - Boonsboro High School Principal Martin R. Green gave about 7 million reasons why the class of 2008 was special during its commencement ceremony Friday at Hagerstown Community College. It was over the course of four years of academic achievement that the nearly 230 or so students in the class were able to compile nearly $7 million in college scholarships, Green said. In his four years as principal, Green said the class of 2008 earned almost twice as much as the class with the second highest amount.

HAGERSTOWN - Many South Hagerstown High School students high-fived their teachers Friday morning as they filed into the school's gym for their graduation ceremony. So began a joyful two-hour ceremony full of hugs, tears and loud bursts of applause. A proud mother started crying and said "that's my baby, there she goes," as the class of 2008 made its way into the gymnasium. Jermaine Cain, a 2006 South High graduate, played the traditional "Pomp and Circumstance" on an organ as his fellow Rebels processed in two-by-two.

Grace Academy, Hagerstown, held commencement services for 18 graduates on Saturday, June 7. Class Salutatorian Lauren Cox spoke to her fellow graduates about class memories as well as on setting plans for the future. Class Valedictorian Robert Wolfe III challenged his classmates to set "Higher Standards. " Awards were given to seniors for academic performance and community service and scholarships were awarded for the recipients to attend institutions of higher learning.

LEXINGTON, Va. - Washington and Lee University alumnus Adam Hockensmith has become the first W&L graduate to win a prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Scholarship. Hockensmith, a 2008 graduate of Washington and Lee, is one of 30 students selected from an international applicant pool of about 700. The Cooke Scholarship will provide him with up to $300,000 toward his graduate study at Yale Law School, which he will enter in the fall. Since his graduation from W&L in June 2008, Hockensmith has lived and worked in Japan, teaching in the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme.

WILLOW HILL, PA. -- Forty-seven students graduated Friday night from Fannett-Metal High School in what was the school's first outdoor ceremony. Family and friends set up lawn chairs to celebrate the graduates, who described themselves as close-knit. "Instead of getting out of high school, it's more missing friends and not seeing them everyday," Melanie Crider said. "Most of us hang out on the weekend," said Nick McCalmont, who joked around before the ceremony with friends Neil Hill, Corey Henry, Dakota Bair, Douglas Johnson and Justin Hockenberry.