Over $91,000 was awarded to members of the class of 2015 Sunday night, May 17 at the annual scholarship program. Several seniors saw their hard work pay off when they were honored with memorial and honorary scholarships during the esteemed program.

“It felt really great to know that all the work I’ve put into school and furthering my education has been successful,” senior James Pompa said. “I’m grateful that others are so willing to help us get to that next step.”

Throughout the program, Principal Derrick Byrd described and told the story behind the numerous memorial scholarships before announcing each recipient.

“It was amazing to hear about all the different memorial scholarships and how they came about and even more rewarding that I was granted with a few,” senior Courtney Weinstrom said. “It really was an honor I’m so thankful for.”

Aside from the memorial scholarships, several honorary scholarships were administered by the Devine Dollars for Scholars program.

“It was humbling to see how much the community supports the graduating class,” senior Michaela Bean said. “The fact that these organizations raised that much money for us is amazing.”

To end the ceremony, the announcement of the valedictorian and salutatorian scholarships were announced. Senior Alyssa Schmidt was announced as the salutatorian, and senior Catherine Duncan was awarded valedictorian of the class of 2015.

“It is an absolute honor to be the 2015 Devine valedictorian,” Duncan said. “These last four years have been hard work, and it’s so rewarding to reach the goal I’ve been striving for since the second grade.”