North Hills High School Class Of 2018: 350 Seniors Move On

ROSS TOWNSHIP PA - North Hills High School’s 350 seniors had commencement exercises at Martorelli Stadium Saturday and the Class of 2018 had much for which to be proud.

More than 88 percent of the graduating class will be continue their education at a two- or four-year degree at a college, technical school or university, and six graduates will enter the U.S. military, according to the school district. Nearly 40 percent of the seniors graduated with a QPA of 3.5 or higher and they were awarded more than $2.8 million in scholarships.

The graduating class included National Merit Scholars, AP Scholars, Pennsylvania Future Business Leaders of America award winners, Gene Kelly Award nominees, PMEA All-State musicians, Speech and Debate state-level honorees, Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science award-winning researchers, Eagle Scouts, WPIAL champions, National Cheerleading Championship qualifiers and PIAA medalists in various sports among other honors.

Class members also engaged in various charitable activities in groups such as Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) Club, Student Council and Hands for Service Club. They spearheaded numerous donations drives of The Pantry and the North Hills Backpack Initiative, a Thanksgiving dinner food drive to provide meals to 200 NHSD families, a Monster Dash 5K and THON for children and families dealing with pediatric illnesses.

Student speakers for the ceremony were Noah Marshalek, Aliana Rao, Dominic Melchiorre, Jordyn Hronec and Maria Arlia. High school principal Beth Williams also spoke, urging students to believe in their dreams and to work hard to achieve them.

“Life is a series of challenges. We can either surrender ourselves to those challenges or keep hoping and dreaming of the day when our dreams will come to fruition,” she said. “Continuing to dream is not easy to do as there are often obstacles that stand in the way of them. For dreams to become reality, they have to be transformed into action and that requires hard work and at times, relentless effort. To underestimate the value of dreams is to discard the importance of our imaginations. Many notable people have overcome opposition and difficulties and reached their dreams because they refused to relinquish them.”

Photo via Shutterstock.

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