Brushing aside the heat wave, Verona High School held its 124th commencement on Wednesday, June 19, outside on the upper field.
The class of 2024 kept its cool under brightly decorated mortarboards as their legions of friends and families turned giant images of the graduates into super-sized fans.
Speakers included Valedictorian Riley Ying and Salutatorian Patrick Huaman, best friends who played soccer side by side for years, first at Verona United and later at VHS. Student Council President Shea Haggerty and Student Council Vice President Gabriella Egnezzo also shared words of remembrance and inspiration.
This year’s graduation marked the retirement of five Verona High School teachers: Linda Barone, Christopher Demond, Dr. Marie Meyer, Max Morden and Tom White, all after more than two decades of service. Barone retired after 26 years a special education teacher. Demond was a physical education, health and driver education teacher, also for 26 years. Dr. Meyer taught English for 26 years, introducing the department’s dual enrollment program and advising the Girls Learn International club and VHS literary magazine. Morden taught music in Verona’s public schools for 35 years, at the elementary and high school levels. White spent 36 years in the English department, and was an advisor to both the yearbook and The Fairview, VHS’s school newspaper.
You can watch the full ceremony here, or catch the highlights in the photos below by Kathleen Seubert.
Verona High School Class of 2024
Kate Adornato, Tanzila Ahmed, Juliet Alkaysi, Samantha Andersen, Leonel Andrade, Aidan Azarowicz
Christian Barattini, Marissa Barnett, Emma Baschieri, Eleanor Battersby, Sophie Beaubouef, Marcus Beninghof, Katherine Bernard, Daniel Bernardino, Tessa Bichalski, Nicholas Boake, Rachel Bochicchio, Sarah Bosco, Sean Brannan, Faith Brolly, Demitri Byrne, Connor Byrnes
Christopher Caldera, Evan Carlson, Anna Carpinelli, Henry Cary, Michael Castner, Fiona Church, Nicholas Ciccolini, Aidan Cifaretto, Brian Cleaver, Andrew Conte, Shane Costigan, Mackenzie Cruz
Max Della Fera, Cara DeMars, Alexandra Derderian, Joseph DiCosta, Keira Dolan, Robert Donohue, Maya Dufalo, Marcus Dunphy, Gabriella Egnezzo, Cara Ehrhardt, Caitlin Eng, Kayla Esposito
Jack Fatatis, James Fenton, Juliette Fernicola, Jake Ferry, Ethan Fersch, Samorah Figueroa, Charles Fjeldal, Olivia Fuentes, Gavin Fuentez
Joyce Gabrael, Zachary Garmont, Teo Garson, Jackson Garthwaite, Lauren Gawley, Samantha Gerardi, Charles Giacomazza, Brandon Greene, Kaya Gumusayak
Arlen Halliday, Ayden Hanlon, Joshua Hayes, Andrew Healy, Anthony Hernandez, Jan Eric Heyniger, Paige Higgins, Carley Holland, Ryan Holland, Tyler Holland, Anna Hoogterp, Dominic Houck, Matthew Huaman, Patrick Huaman
Marguerite Jones, Grace Keane, Emma Kirby, Anya Klinger, Hannah Koffler, Shaina Kogan, Daniel Kozachuk, Marley Kramer
Dominique La Barbiera, Cristian Latorre, Gabriel Levine, Zoe Levine, Anthony Lewis, Sarah Lewis, Violet Liaukus, Michael Lipari, Julia Loudon, Grace Lustig
John Mac Evoy, Vindhyan Marimuthu, Emma McDevitt, Megan McGrath, Grace McMahan, Nicholas Mecca, Katelyn Meehan, Peter Merle, Erin Michael, Gavin Moore, Sophia Morales, Eoin Moy
Marc Nigro, Julia Nogales, Maile O’Neill, Alexandra Palma, Anthony Passaro, Kieran Patel, Esteban Patrone-Michellod, Lauren Paz, Aidan Penny, Isabel Perez, Alexandra Popowich, Michael Potts-DeMasi, Nadia Prieto
Ryan Radigan, Emma Richards, Samantha Rizzi, Jadha Rojas-Moreta, Landon Ruggiero, Lauren Ryan
Cody Sacchi, Reese Sahadow, Dylan Sampers, Julian Santorelli, Kendra Santos, Emma Shaw, Marni Shepard, Malak Sherif, Abigail Shust, Christopher Sluck, Marlena Spina, Evan Spitler, Evan Spong, Briele Sposato, Nicolae Stanescu, Anna Stopka
Luca Tedesco, Emily Theobald, Danielle Thompson, Sofia Till, Matthew Toomsoo, Jasmine Traficante, Ryan Tsang
Matthew Vaccaro, Georganne Valera, Marguerite Valera, Joseph Vallone, Ceili Van Derzee, Allyson Vasquez, Alexandra Vecchio, Ava Vega, Michael Venezia, Mia Viganola, Michael Villani
Levi Wegesa, Jeremy Williams, Megan Wynne, Riley Ying, Ian Zalewski, Elliott Ziebert
Photo: Kathleen Seubert
How many 2024 VHS graduates were there? I want to compare to VHS 1958, 117 graduates, 66 years ago. Thank you.
There were 167 graduates in the VHS Class of 2024. So bigger than your class but far smaller than the class that is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year: VHS ’74 had 254 graduates.