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mokenamessenger.com news
the Mokena Messenger | June 7, 2018 | 3
Central grads receive diplomas, look to future
Amanda Stoll, Assistant Editor
For the 538 students graduating
from Lincoln-Way
Central on May 30, it was no
easy task.
There were tests, projects
and mountains of homework
to get through, not to mention
navigating the waters
of high school itself. Many
of the graduates started their
Lincoln-Way experience at
one school and finished it at
another.
Dominic Terrones, of Mokena,
was one of those students
who transferred from
East to Central when Lincoln-Way
North was closed.
Terrones, who will attend
Stanford University in the
fall to study computer science
engineering, gave a
speech at the graduation ceremony
as the class-elected
president.
“My speech wasn’t for the
board of education or the administration
or the parents
there... It was really directed
and meant for my peers,”
Terrones said. “I, myself,
was inspired by what we’ve
accomplished in these last
two years because, obviously,
there was a lot of change
in the district recently and a
lot of reform and things that
happened and what were
seen as obstacles.
“But what we accomplished
was so extraordinary
that I felt that there needed
to be an homage paid to all
those efforts and sacrifices
we did.”
It was about more than
just the passing grades and
long nights spent studying
for exams. Those accomplishments
were of building
up their school community
in the midst of turmoil in a
way that would last for years
to come.
“What we’ve accomplished
in these past two
years is going to have a profound
effect on not only the
district, but, more specifically,
our school and its success,”
Terrones said.
While reminiscing about
his beginnings in the marching
band, which led him to
be selected as one of the district’s
five drum majors for
his junior and senior years,
Terrones recounted a memory
of his from a football
game this past season as a
defining moment in his high
school career.
As the band played the
fight song and the student
section sang along, he said
the feeling was overwhelming.
“I just remember that
feeling of Knight pride and
of being at home, of we as
a school had successfully
come together and had produced
something that was
so great and something that
made me love Lincoln-Way
Central so much,” Terrones
said.
Just as the students in the
schools banded together
after the closure of North,
Terrones talked about how
the students in the marching
bands did the same with the
formation of the Lincoln-
Way Marching Band.
“I remember the first time
we played ‘Battle Hymn of
the Republic,’” he said. “I
Lincoln-Way Central students lead the singing of, “The Star
Spangled Banner,” to begin graduation ceremonies May 30.
Bob Klein/22nd Century Media
felt this power and a connection
to the past that made me
know that what we were doing
was right and that what
we were doing had a very
profound effect on the community
as a healing force in
the community and also as
an organization with a very
bright future.
Please see graduation, 8
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