Class president Andrew Steinkamp infused his speech at Donegal's 2024 graduation ceremony with a bit humor. He thanked all of the people who have helped him over the years, including his parents. "I know my parents were my biggest help, from waking me at 8:02 so I could be at school at 7:50, to always keeping money in my lunch account so I could eat eight slices of pizza every week," he said at the ceremony held on June 5 at the high school.

He reminded his peers that although high school may be over, the students have really only completed a small portion of their lives, and there are lots of adventures to come. "As my favorite race car, Lightning McQueen, also had to learn, 'You can't turn back the clock, kid, but you can wind it up again,'" he said.

The graduation ceremony included a performance of the national anthem sung by senior Zoe Snyder, members of the senior chorus performing "I Lived" by OneRepublic and speeches from principal John Haldeman, superintendent Gregory Kiehl and school board president Oliver Overlander III.

Hannah Slobozien was named valedictorian. She will attend Schreyer Honors College at Penn State University this fall, where she plans to major in communications and political science.

She began her speech with a surprising statement: "In sixth grade, I almost burned down the school library." She went on to explain that she had accidentally left a glue gun plugged in over the weekend, and she worried it would catch on fire. It didn't, but she burned her hand on that same glue gun, and she compared that story to the future the graduates face. It's important, she told her classmates, to know when to let go, even though it's not always easy.

She encouraged her peers to look at the own hand and see their past, from holding onto their parents' fingers to using their hands to drive their first car. "Imagine for a moment that each person and experience that you've held onto up until this point has etched themselves into the palm and the fingers of your hand, creating a beautiful one-in-a-million kind of story that makes you who you are," she said.

Kara Nissly was named salutatorian. She will attend William and Mary, participating in a joint degree program with the University of St Andrews in Scotland and majoring in history. "I would like to begin my address to you by talking about rocks," she said, noting that many children, including herself, loved to collect all types of rocks when they were younger.

Her favorites, she said, were geodes. "From the outside, geodes do not appear to be anything special," she said. "They're not shiny or sparkly. In order to determine if a rock might be a geode, you must be intentionally looking for one." She urged her classmates to intentionally look for the good in life as they face the future.

She also reminded her peers not to focus too much on the big picture, but instead, to look at the details, adding, "I challenge you to value the little moments, the in-between moments."