Elizabethtown Area School District confers diplomas to Class of 2025

Elizabethtown Area School District conferred diplomas to 327 students at the Class of 2025 commencement held at Elizabethtown Area High School, where speakers and student representatives highlighted academic and extracurricular achievements and surveyed post‑graduation plans.

The ceremony included student remarks, a superintendent address, and a speech from Steve Lindemuth, president of the Elizabethtown Area School Board. Student speakers noted that the class spent roughly 4,500 hours in the high school or at the Lancaster County Career Technology Center, and outlined collective accomplishments including more than $100,000 in senior awards, 292 dual‑enrollment classes taken by 53 students, 88 Advanced Placement exams taken by 12 students, 74 roster spots on sports teams, 86 internships, 64 work experiences and 74 students enrolled in the Lancaster County Career Technology Center.

“Thank you, class of 2025, and best of luck to all of you,” a student speaker said during closing remarks.

In his brief remarks, the superintendent of the Elizabethtown Area School District recited Robert Frost’s lines from “The Road Not Taken,” telling graduates, “I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” Steve Lindemuth, president of the school board, urged graduates to accept responsibility in their decisions and quoted Franklin D. Roosevelt’s line that “we have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

The school’s senior survey results, reported at the ceremony, showed that 69% of graduates planned to pursue postsecondary education, 30% intended to enter the workforce directly and 1% planned military service. The FFA provided geraniums displayed along the front of the stage.

The program named Austin Risser as valedictorian and Jacqueline Bridal as salutatorian. The administration instructed graduates to move tassels to the left once the superintendent conferred diplomas “by the authority vested in me by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and with the students present here today, having completed all the requirements set forth by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Elizabethtown Area School District.” The ceremony concluded with the presentation of diplomas to individual students.

The event combined traditional addresses, musical performance by seniors Scott Creason, Bridal Fritz, Lisonbee Heinem and Alyssa Nolt and the roll call of graduates. For families and community members, the ceremony emphasized both measurable achievements and appeals to students’ sense of purpose as they transition from high school.