Avella to graduate 44 seniors
Avella Junior-Senior High School will hold commencement for 44 seniors at 7 p.m. May 31 in the high school gymnasium.
Valedictorian Julianne Latynski and salutatorian Alexandra Cilia will speak, along with Alexia Myers and Kenna Hixenbaugh, who will give the class poem.
Latynski is the daughter of John and Melinda Latynski of Avella. She received the Georgiana and Robert F. Riley Jr. full tuition scholarship to Bethany (W.Va.) College and the Friends of MarkWest Scholarship. She also received The Challenge Program’s Academic Excellence Award (2016-17 school year); was the March 2019 Student of the Month, and a published artist in the 2019 Celebrating Art book.
She was captain and lead choreographer of the Avella Dance Team; president of the National Honor Society, and a member of the Student Forum and Yearbook Club.
She will attend Bethany College, where she will double major in environmental science and political science with a career goal of environmental lobbyist.
Cilia, daughter of Christopher and Alyssa Cilia of Avella, received the Founder’s Scholarship from St. Francis University; Italian-American Cultural and Heritage Society of Washington County Scholarship; Rotary Club of Washington Scholarship, and the Black Family Scholarship.
She was class president in grades seven through 12, varsity volleyball four-year letterman, varsity basketball two-year letterman, and a member of the National Honor Society. She volunteered at Washington Hospital, Avella Area Junior High volleyball team, Ohio Valley Volleyball Academy club league volleyball and Clover Patch 4-H Club.
She will attend St. Francis University, where she will major in physician assistant sciences and minor in American Sign Language.