On a lovely spring night the students, parents, and staff of West Milford High School assembled to recognize the hard work and achievements of the top students and future leaders here at WMHS. The night was created only a few years ago to recognize the top 60 students in the school respectively, meaning the top 15 students from each grade.
Since its creation, the night has also become the first public announcement of the salutatorian and valedictorian along with the distribution of departmental awards to deserving seniors and collegiate awards to high ranking and worthy juniors.
The top fifteen senior distinguished scholars announced by Nicolas Pollaro, Assistant Principal, were Jonathan Albar, Danielle Burns, Lauren Conlon, Kelly DeNaples, Alyssa Herbaugh, Christopher Kachler, Patrick Kerssen, Justin Lombardo, Edward Looney, Sophia Metcalf, Anthony Pasquariello, Mackenzie Porch, Sara Reich, Destin Royer, and Liam Stewart. A big round of applause goes out to all of these students and their families.
James Cresbaugh, Guidance Supervisor, spoke highly about these students and recognized scholars who had other siblings who were also ranked at the top of their classes. He explained how siblings often learn more from their brothers and sisters than their parents, teachers, or friends. He told how he watched his three daughters grow up to be successful but can take little responsibility for their achievements.
He then began to welcome each respective department head to give the award for their department. The first award was given by Dr. McLaughlin from the Fine Art, Choral Music, and Instrumental Departments to Ashley Caldero, Laura McLaughlin, and Patrick Kerssen respectively. Other seniors who received awards were Lindsey Perez (Business Department), Taylor DeBlock (Industrial Arts), Sara Reich (English Department), Christal Torres (World Language Department), Danielle Quaife (Consumer Science Department), Zack Tynan and Leisha Noble (Physical Education Department), Edward Looney (Mathematics Department), and Sophia Metcalf (History Department).
When it was the Science Department’s turn to present its award, the science supervisor, Mr. Erik Siegel, spoke about what future leaders of this country need to grasp to be successful. He said, “When your parents were your age, and seated here [in school], just like you are tonight, 4G meant a parking space, you bought fruit at the Apple Store, nothing was in a Cloud, Amazon was a river, and no one bragged about having ‘followers’.” He brought these funny terms to our attention to demonstrate how much the world has changed and how much we are going to rely on these curious scholars to “pull our country forward,” stated Siegel.
After his speech the award was ultimately awarded to Sara Reich, who later that night was announced to be class of 2014 Valedictorian. Patrick Kerssen was then announced by Mr. Paul Gorski, WMHS principal, as this year’s graduating class Salutatorian. This event took place on May 20th at 7:00 in the High School Auditorium.