On Sunday, June 1, the 55th graduating class from Homewood-Flossmoor Community High School walked across the stage at H-F Stadium to receive their diplomas and begin their next chapter. District 233 Board of Education President Richard T. Lites was the distinguished speaker, and Terrin Ammons, president of the senior class, and Broc Thompson, executive board president of Student Government, gavefarewell speeches. Superintendent Dr. Von Mansfield presented the Viking Scholars, the Class of 2014’s top academic performers, then Principal Dr. Ryan Pitcock along with the school’s guidance counselors presented the remaining graduates. Board of Education members Dr. John Farrell, Dr. David Mayer, Gerald Pauling, Jody Scariano and Tim Wenckus helped distribute the diplomas.
This class of graduates had earned the school's highest average ACT score in recent years —
21.6 — and earned more than $12 million in scholarship money. More than 270 scholarships were earned by this class, including two Chick Evans Caddie Scholarships: Alexander Cueller to the University of Illinois - Champaign, and Kristin Spratt to Northwestern University.
The H-F graduates will be attending colleges next fall in 27 different U.S. states, plus one student — Shaw Didier — will be attending the Royal Conservatory of Scotland in Glasgow, Scotland.
Twelve students will be joining branches of the U.S. Military, including William Daniels to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and Megan Dunlavy to the U.S. Naval Academy.
The Viking Scholars for this year's class — and the universities they are attending in the fall —
are (in alphabetical order): Desmond Amuh (Yale University); Kevin Anderson (Grinnell College); Crissel Marie Arban (University of Illinois - Chicago); Maeve Coates Welsh (University of Chicago); Kristina Hill (Massachusetts Institute of Technology); Lauren Hurley (Grinnell College); Emma Lane (Northwestern University); Allison Lessner (University of Virginia); Rebekah Siliezar (Yale University);and Kristin Spratt (Northwestern University).