Following is only an encapsulation of the Allentown and Lawrence high school graduations. For complete coverage, see the June 28 edition of The Messenger-Press
By:Cara Latham, Staff Writer, and Leah Kahn, The Packet Group
In the first commencement ceremony to take place off campus, nearly 280 Allentown high school redbirds marched into The College of New Jersey’s student recreation center Wednesday to receive their diplomas.
Principal Christopher Nagy highlighted the accomplishments of the school’s graduating class, including the $4.6 million total they received in scholarships, and their athletic feats – seven of the eight sports teams either won division or conference championships or made it to the state competitions this year.
He urged the class of 2007 to "embrace education as a lifelong process and find the inner fortitude to be courageous along the journey of life, to stay the course despite hardships and challenges."
Salutatorian Karyn Sulit, during her address, held up a compass, which she said symbolized connection graduates will always have with Allentown, no matter how far they may be from each other.
"In a sense, we are each the moving foot of the compass, while Allentown is the fixed foot," she said. "Thanks to this foot, we are able to go far and still have somewhere to come home to."
"The beautiful part is that some of us will stay close to home, and others will travel to the far corners of the earth, but we will still have the same core as an individual and as a class," she continued. "And in the end, our different paths with identical cores result in a beautiful piece of artwork – a design of concentric circles, each representing us and our tie to AHS."
Guests at Lawrence High School’s graduation ceremony Tuesday night may have thought they were attending a beach party and not an annual rite of passage, based on the half-dozen beach balls the seniors were tossing among themselves.
But the 350-plus members of Lawrence High School’s Class of 2007 were merely feeling their oats, amusing themselves as they listened to several speakers and waited to pick up the diploma that marks childhood’s end.
The Lawrence Township Board of Education, school district administrators, faculty and staff were escorted onto the main floor at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton by the Trenton AOH Pipe Band. The bag pipers and drummers played traditional tunes.
School board President Laura Waters noted that this graduation ceremony marks the end of a 17-year relationship between the Lawrence Township and Washington Township school districts, as the last batch of Washington Township’s high school seniors picked up their diplomas from LHS.
Since 1990, Washington Township had sent its high school students to LHS – but Washington now has its own high school. The approximately 80 seniors from Washington Township are the last ones to receive a diploma from LHS.
"To the graduates, you should know how proud we are of you and to the parents, for surviving the high school years," Ms. Waters said. "The world beckons to you. There is no limit to what each of you can do."
David Roman, the high school principal, urged the seniors to make their lives worth living by searching for a purpose in life, regardless of how difficult it may be to find that purpose.
"Here is the secret to life," Mr. Roman said. "Be at peace with yourself. Go into this journey with an open heart. And one last thing – live every day as if it is your last day."

