by Dr. Molly Moorhead
(This is the address given to the 2009 Loveland High School Graduating Class by Dr. Molly Moorhead, the Principal of Loveland High School on May 30 at Xavier University's Cintas Center.)
Good morning again. It is my pleasure to honor the Class of 2009 by sharing some of their noteworthy accomplishments with you. This class has amassed over 13 million dollars in scholarship money—bravo to them!
Do you remember the fall of 2005? You and I arrived at Loveland High School — you to begin your high school careers and I to become your principal. I’m not sure any of us knew for certain what was in store for us! I was immediately impressed with the Link Crew students who welcomed you to the school, made sure you knew your way around, helped you get both your schedules and your first high school pictures taken.
I was impressed during Homecoming Week when the entire town came out for the Homecoming Parade and the bonfire that followed it. What a bonfire that was - brief and flaming high, and consequently, the only bonfire we have seen in our four years at LHS. Throughout our four years together, you have been a delightful class, friendly, and fun, and until this past Tuesday, I would have said you were about perfect. I told countless people that I did not want you to leave.
In November, 50 of you were fortunate enough to go Washington, DC. with Mr. Volkman as
your tour guide. Since this was my senior year, I asked if I could chaperon. It was a great trip! Not only were you all always prompt, Mr. Volkman said that you were the first group of young people he had ever taken on a trip who were actually early everywhere we went. You all seemed to enjoy one another and got along so well together. Seeing our nation’s capital with a patriot like Mr. Volkman was a unique and moving experience for all of us, and I appreciated your maturity and how well you represented Loveland.
This class has demonstrated an appreciation for academic excellence. Our National Merit Scholarship Finalists for this year were Chris Stahl and Jenny Klein and our National Merit Commended Finalist was Katherine Ramos.
I would like to introduce our Top 10 Seniors beginning with #1: Valedictorian Christopher Stahl, Salutatorian Jenny Klein, Heather Winterhalter, Emily Kowalchik, David Hewitt, Andy Jarc, Katie Linz, Meghan McLaughlin, Ben Hinchman V, and Calvin Budinger.
This school year, seniors Samantha Cardwell and Meghan McLaughlin represented Loveland High School on our Loveland City Schools Board of Education. We appreciate their work with the board.
This past fall, Jamie Allison’s Biotech students were invited to display at the National Career Pathways Network Convention held downtown at the Duke Energy Convention Center. Josh Hoge, Jeff Kamperman, Jenny Klein, Dane Larson, Nick Nobiletti, Emily Rahm, and Sydney Viox discussed their Biotech projects with college professors and business people from across the country. Our Biotech students also presented at UC’s College of Applied Science Tech Expo where Jenny Klein was named the Greater Cincinnati Tech Prep Consortium BioScience Student of the Year, and Andrew Distasio, Dane Larson, Morgan Smith, and Sydney Viox all were awarded scholarships. Mr. Allison reports that the total scholarship awards based upon being in our Biotech program top $120,000 for this group of seniors.
We were thrilled to learn that senior Alexandra Dodenhoff had artwork selected as “Top 25” in the 2009 Ohio Governor’s Youth Art Exhibition. Alex received the Governor’s Award of Excellence—her work was selected from almost 12,000 pieces which were entered in 15 regions throughout the state. Colin Dyer also had artwork selected in the Top 200 in the state. Earlier in the year, Colin received a significant honor in the Visual Arts competition of the 2008 Overture Awards where he competed against talented students from Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio. Bravo to Alex and to Colin!
In the field of written expression, Angelica Gutierrez was awarded a finalist in the 2008 National Hispanic Heritage High School Writing Contest.
Our Thespian drama students are wearing blue honor cords today. During their past four years at LHS, they have worked with 4 different drama directors, yet have maintained their high performance standards, with impressive productions this year of Bye, Bye, Birdie and Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat.
In our music department, Midori Kudo was selected for All-State Orchestra and both Midori and Kai Nemoto were chosen for Southwest Regional Orchestra.
I’d like to thank our seniors involved in media production at LHS. Senior newspaper editors of The Roar have been Chelsey Saatkamp and Jeff Varley who have worked with advisor Neil Schmidt. Yearbook editor in chief of the Lohian has been Rachel Voss who worked with advisor Kelly Partridge. We have been enjoying televised news each morning under the supervision of art teacher Jim Barrett featuring on air talent Lauren Martinez, Case Henskins, Sarah Bailey and David Gillman. These seniors have kept the morning news lively, interesting, and unpredictable.
Besides academic achievement, the Class of 2009 has demonstrated an understanding of the importance of community service. During her junior year, Julia Sos organized a fashion show to raise funds for our school's Invisible Children of Uganda campaign. This service to others was returned to her with a college scholarship offer based on her commitment to community service. Jil Templeton’s psychology and sociology classes have had a partnership with at-risk or disabled students from Becker Elementary in the North College Hill School District. Our students wrote to their partners every Friday and used their peer interaction to foster and encourage literacy. Many of our students spent their TLC afternoons at Becker reading books to children to show them that education can be their bridge out of poverty. One more community service nod goes to Art Sabga who came to my office throughout the school year to pick up recycling for Mr. Dorsey’s Ecology Club.
In the field of athletics, our seniors won many games and competitions that made our fans proud. Our Academic Team, which is an FAVC sport, was 2nd in the FAVC conference and the FAVC tournament. Captain of the team was Vidhya Sabapathy and other senior members were Fiona Robertson, Katherine Foster, Alexsa Schrader, Amanda LaCombe, Patrick Conley, and Katy Ramos.
I would also like to mention the following senior athletes who specifically received an honor that has made history for the Loveland athletic program:
- Bobby Capobianco became our boy’s basketball all time leading scorer and rebounder while leading the team to an undefeated conference championship. Bobby is a four year 1st Team All Conference recipient. He was also named to the all city, all southwest district, and played in the North-South all star game.
- Chris Stahl has become our all time most winning tennis player with over 90 wins en route to qualifying in doubles at the state finals in Columbus.
- Brian Wozniak was honorable mention all city in two sports—football and basketball. Brian was an MVP of both the basketball and football teams.
- Alex Pohl has received 12 varsity letters in volleyball, basketball and track over her career making her one of the most decorated female athletes in our history.
- Mike Brizzi was named 1st team All City and All Southwest Ohio in soccer as well as 2nd team All State. Mike also participated in the East-West All Star game.
- Overall, this year’s senior athletes were offered over $775,000 in athletic scholarships.
In the spring, our seniors were called to the auditorium and presented with the news that they were going to have to make up one school day and also complete a 6 hour project to meet the required attendance days and hours for the state of Ohio. They could have balled up the pages of information and thrown them back at me. Instead, they sat in the auditorium respectfully and began to contemplate what they might each do to complete a six hour Senior Project.
Mollie Fitzgerald, who has been delightful to work with as class president, Syd Meinking, Ryan Henke, Evan Stanley, Bobby Capobianco, and Brian Wozniak planned a Senior Walk-a- thon that would benefit a group called Operation Thank You which supports our local soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over 100 seniors gave up one entire Saturday in May to walk as their Senior Project, and they raised well over $1000 for Operation Thank You. I’d like to thank the many teachers who advised seniors and graded their individual projects.
The Class of 2009 is unique in that it includes two sets of twins Patrick and Andrea Conley, and Andrew and Kevin Ver Hoef and a set of quadruplets: Joseph, Kathleen, Kelly, and Keri Pfaltzgraff. We have seniors who come to school faithfully while dealing with serious medical challenges, they are true profiles in courage: Ashley Hutson has been a varsity cheerleader, performing with the rest of the squad all the while dealing with Cystic Fibrosis, Deena Trewiler battles Spina Bifada, and Keri Pfaltzgraf always has a smile on her face despite dealing with Cerebral Palsy.
Three of our LHS teachers have children who are members of the Class of 2009: Kevin Bowdler and his daughter Allison, Kerri Daugherty and her daughter Jillian, and Theresa Hill and her son Andrew Bierke. Our school nurse Vickie Falconi Young has daughter Lindsay, school resource officer Rod Housley has niece Leah Mayes, and Loveland bus driver Ola Smith has a son, Will in the graduating class.
I’d like to thank the staff members participating in graduation today. Leah Evans was selected by this senior class as Teacher of the Year. Trent Compton wrote in his nomination, “From the quirky way she puts a singing hamster on every student’s desk on their birthday to the way she accepts any and all questions and won’t stop explaining until it is completely understood, Ms. Evans deserves this award. She’s inspired me to consider being a math teacher.” Bravo to Ms. Evans and all our staff who work with our students each day, challenging them, supporting them, and helping us maintain our record of excellence.
I wish these seniors all the best as they begin the next phase of their lives’ journeys. Young people, you have the opportunity make a real difference in the world. You are my first four year LHS friends with whom I have been privileged to spend some of the most significant years of your lives. While you are now graduating and moving on, I will remain behind, forever a senior, and truly miss seeing you each day in the halls of Loveland High School. You have been fun people and you have brightened my days!
You are the young people who as freshman first heard me remind students, “If you have to choose between being right and being kind, choose kindness.” After four years, I hope you have each figured out that to be kind is the greatest gift you can give to your family, your friends, your community, your world, and yourself. The Dalai Lama has said that there’s no shop that sells kindness; you must build it within. You can transplant hearts, but you cannot transplant a warm heart. I wish for each of you, now and in the future, forever, a warm heart.
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