News Photo by Temi Fadayomi Posen High School Valedictorian Ethan Purol (center) addresses his classmates during Posen’s graduation ceremony on Friday alongside fellow valedictorians Faith Cousins, Madison Kamyszek, Halie Konieczny, Macy Kroll, Mariah Newhouse, and Ava Wesner.

POSEN — On Friday, Posen High School held its graduation for the Class of 2023.

This year’s proceedings saw 20 students meet on the Posen football field to be honored with their high school diplomas.

The event started with the graduates making their way to their seats on the track while the “Pomp and Circumstance” played over the speakers.

Once all the students were at their seats, Posen Superintendent Michelle Wesner got on the podium and acknowledged the graduates, introduced the board of education and gave the microphone to the Posen Salutatorian Shelby Donajkowski so she could give a speech to her classmates.

After Donajkowski completed her speech, Wesner called up Posen’s seven valedictorians: Faith Cousins, Madison Kamyszek, Halie Konieczny, Macy Kroll, Mariah Newhouse, Ethan Purol, and Ava Wesner.

Purol spoke on behalf of the valedictorians in his speech to his fellow graduates.

“Over the last 13 years, we learned of course book skills in school, math, history, science etcetera,” Purol said in his speech to his classmates. “But more importantly we learned to be human, we learned empathy, determination, and work ethic. We learned to be contributing members of society.”

After the speech, Posen’s Board of Education President Andrew Stone addressed the graduates.

After his speech, faculty member Stephanie Dege got on the stage for the presentation of the Class of 2023 and gave a speech to the students.

In her speech, Dege reminisced about her memories with the graduates as their teacher and acknowledged each graduate individually, and spoke about what they brought to both the classroom as well as her life.

“The hardest thing about teaching high school is having to say goodbye,” Dege said to graduates during her speech. “You guys all hold a special place in my heart and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store.”

After Dege’s speech, the graduates were presented with their diplomas.