Cincinnati Friends Meeting is pleased to recognize the scholastic achievements of many young people associated with our faith community:
- Autumn Barney, the daughter of Cincinnati Friends Meeting member Cathy Barney and her husband Tad Barney, graduated summa cum laude from Kent State University with a Bachelor of Arts in fashion.
- Clare Daumeyer, the daughter of attenders Lisa and Rob Daumeyer, graduated from Loveland High School and plans to attend Ohio State University to major in international studies.
- Michael McCreary, the grandson of attenders Mary and Earl Wittrock, graduated from Scott High School (Kentucky) and plans to attend Northern Kentucky University.
- Brynne Riley, the granddaughter of member Sharon Riley, graduated from Westlake High School and plans to attend the Savannah School of Art and Design in the fall.
- Megan Myers, the daughter of Matthew and Jen Myers and the granddaughter of members Paul and Judy Leasure, is an honors graduate of Milford High School, where she pursued studies in the Milford Teaching Professions Academy. Megan also serves as the assistant in our Meeting's nursery. This fall she will attend the University of Cincinnati/Clermont and then go on to Northern Kentucky University for her degree in Early Childhood Education.
As a young girl, Megan went to Mulberry Elementary School in Milford, where her sister Sara Ann now attends. She did student teaching there during high school. Her dream following her college education is to go back to Mulberry, this time not as a student but as a teacher, following in the footsteps of the teachers who inspired her calling. She shares her thoughts on graduation in the following essay.
As Seniors We Rise
We were brought into this world during 9/11. As we came out to really begin our lives after 12 years of schooling, we were now crushed with a global epidemic. As seniors, we all knew this was going to be our year. We had so many senior events and plans for our final year of high school.
We came in so excited, knowing that in the next couple of years we would all be on to new journeys, so our end to high school was going to be bittersweet. However, the ending we all were expecting is not what we got! We didn’t get to our senior prom. We didn’t get to wish a final good-bye to our teachers. We didn’t get a senior bike ride. We didn’t even get to have a formal, in-person graduation.
For us, we didn’t get the year we all planned and hoped for. As I felt the pain through my own senior heart, I watched as my peers hurt too…a girl bawling over not being able to finish her last high school year of softball…a guy upset because his swimming team had made it to the championship, only to have it cancelled. Things we worked so hard for were stripped from us. Things we looked forward to our entire high school career were stripped from us. There are so many things we lost, so many things we didn’t get to experience.
We did lose a lot. There is no doubt about that, but what is important for seniors to realize is that we still have so much and we gained so much, too. All through the online schooling our teachers worked so hard to keep teaching us and making school the best it could be without being together. Not only that, this pandemic has made us all the more stronger and determined. We have pushed through this tough time as Milford Eagles. When we all go into our careers and become hard-working adults, we will all look back and be able to say we overcame the worst and came out on top. Not everyone gets what it’s like to have an abrupt end to their senior year.
As seniors we faced comments like “graduation was long and boring anyway,” but even so, that is what we wanted. That is what we worked for and deserved—a long and boring graduation. And for our online graduation, no other class can say they graduated through a computer screen or TV.
Although it may have not been what we hoped, the class of 2020 will be remembered for this. We made history. We, as young people, were resilient and we showed all those around us how to be as well.
So it isn’t what we wanted, but it is what we got, and as a class we sure did make the most out of what we got!
