Just before 5 p.m. Tuesday, the procession started from the goalposts closest to the Keeny Stadium scoreboard. Within an hour, 230 seniors at Upper Perkiomen High School, wearing identical dark blue caps and gowns, officially became graduates. The ceremonial tassel turn, led by class President Christopher Montes, set off a loud ovation from the football field and the stands.

            In between, district administrators, teachers, parents, families and friends celebrated the Class of 2025. The annual commencement exercises capped a 13-year educational journey.

            "This chapter in our lives has ended, but the book is only just beginning," said Jackson Long, one of two student speakers, who will study sports journalism at Arizona State University. "After 13 years of hard work, grit, and determination, we are moving on to bigger and better things, whether that means college across the country or staying here and working."

            Superintendent Allyn Roche told the students that the excitement and energy their parents felt on their first day of kindergarten can only be matched by the passion and pride they feel as they hear their names called. He described them as an example to the current students and future graduates.

            According to the superintendent, the students successfully navigated the transition from elementary school to the old middle school, in East Greenville, to the new middle school, in Upper Hanover, in seventh grade before arriving at the high school. They survived multiple virtual and hybrid learning phases over their academic careers.

            High school principal Frank Flanagan encouraged the graduates to embrace change. He described it as an inevitable, constant force that shapes the world and all our lives.

            "Your journey through high school, with its challenges and triumphs, has been a testament to your ability to adapt, grow and thrive amidst change," Flanagan said from a podium facing the scoreboard, set up between the hashes at the 20-yard line.

            Maguire Simms, a graduate who will study early childhood education at Susquehanna University, told her classmates to chase their dreams, "as long as your dream doesn't involve waking up before 9 a.m." She concluded that life is like the hallway between classes: chaotic, loud, people walking in every direction, and "somehow you're always stuck behind someone going way too slow.

            "But if you keep moving forward, you'll get where you're meant to go," Simms said.

            Fifty-two seniors completed their programs at the Western Montgomery Career and Technology Center. Fifty of those received 57 local awards at the Senior Awards Ceremony with a total value of $59,640.

            A dozen students will be entering military service and furthering their education in a trade school or certificate program of study.

            The entire class received college and private scholarships worth over $864,061, according to information provided by administrators. It states that 71 percent, 163 students, will be continuing their education beyond high school.

            One hundred and twenty-five students are enrolled in four, five, or six-year bachelor's or master's degree programs. An additional 26 are enrolled in a two-year associate's degree and/or technical program.

            The class colors are purple and white. The class song is "Unwritten," by Natasha Bedingfield. Lily of the Valley is the class flower. The class motto is: "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."