'Who are you going to be?'

PERKINS TWP. — Perkins Schools said goodbye to 134 Pirates as they set sail for their futures and turned their graduation tassels. On Sunday, May 25, families and friends of Perkins High School graduates filled Firelands Health Stadium to watch their loved ones cross the field and accept their diplomas. Before their names were called to receive their recognition, the graduates listened to speeches presented by Perkins Schools staff and their class presidents, Carly Grathwol and Dylan Crabtree. High school principal Jeff Harbal was first to the microphone to congratulate the newest class of graduates on their milestone. "Your journey through these halls represents not just academic accomplishments, but the development of character, resilience and vision," Harbal said. "This diploma signifies far more than the completion of requirements. It represents your readiness to embrace the opportunities that now await." Harbal said graduation was a time for reflection and consideration of the obstacles and lessons the students learned to make them into the people they are today. It is also a time to not only celebrate past accomplishments, but also what is to come for their futures. "As you step forward into this new chapter, let compassion guide your interactions, integrity define your character and a thirst for knowledge fuel your continued growth," Harbal said. "Remember that true success is measured not just by personal achievement, but by the positive impact you have on others." Before Grathwol and Crabtree addressed their classmates, Harbal reminded the graduates they would always be part of "the Perkins family." Grathwol used her speaking time to ask her classmates, "Who are you going to be?" She said high school achievements, trophies and test scores will fade into the past, while who the students are, their values, impact and the way they showed up when it mattered will stay in people's minds. "What you do might open the door, but who you are is what makes people invite you in," Grathwol said. "It makes people trust you, remember you and miss you when you're gone. So go out there, dream big, work hard, fail sometimes, start again, but through it all, become someone you're proud of." Instead of focusing on the importance of how others treat each other and how his classmates reflect on their relationships, Crabtree challenged the graduates to think about how they treat themselves in a world full of comparisons to others' success. "We create these visions of success, of happiness, of the kind of person we think we're supposed to be," Crabtree said. "Then real life sets in and time passes and somewhere along the way, we start to change." Related to change, Crabtree summarized a letter he wrote to his future self in eighth grade. He asked himself several questions, including how much he could lift, how his cats were doing, if he plans to become an engineer and if he is happy and proud. "I was not the varsity quarterback, my cats couldn't live forever, nor am I going to become an engineer," Crabtree said. "But that is okay because, since eighth grade, I have changed and everyone is going to keep changing." Crabtree reminded his classmates that changing paths does not mean failure, it is evolution to a more successful path. Board of education president Jason Dulaney called out the graduates for being the first and only class to have their cellphones taken away. He said this moment "marked the beginning of something new." Dulaney related the students' ability to speak off script to their lack of cellphones and said he wanted to be like the class and speak from the heart. "You've shown us that real relationships, real memories and real growth don't happen on a screen; they happen face to face with each other," Dulaney said. Dulaney told the students to remember what they had accomplished together and their ability to build connections and to speak up and off script. Superintendent Lonny Rivera reflected on the number of lives the class of 2025 will influence through words, actions and dreams. He told his students to never give up, even through the inevitable obstacles and setbacks to come in the graduates' futures. The last speaker before diplomas were distributed, Rivera shared how the student speaker was selected. Each year, the honor scholars of the class select the speaker using methods ranging from coin flips to secret ballots. This year, the students discussed, reflected and decided Katherine Skavnak and Kendall Ellis deserved the honor. The speakers reflected on lessons they learned during their time at Perkins Schools. To name a few, they said to be yourself, take criticism, keep the glass half full and that changing plans is okay. They also recognized the class did not reach this accomplishment alone; they all had someone in their corner supporting them, ranging from parents, teachers and mentors. Perkins High School Class of 2025 • Total graduates: 134 — 61% going to college — 10% enrolling in trade school — 10% entering the workforce — 4% enlisting in the military — 15% undecided • About $155,000 in local scholarship money accepted