SDHS Class of ’23 breaks grant and scholarship record

By Hunter Hine Staff Writer

(June 9, 2023) On the evening of May 31, families filled the audience at Stephen Decatur High School’s Louis H. Taylor Stadium to watch seniors walk the stage and accept diplomas at the Class of 2023 graduation ceremony.

During a speech, Principal Thomas Sites announced that this graduating class broke a SDHS record by earning $18 million in scholarships and grants.

“I’ve been waiting all week to make this announcement,” Sites said.

Of the 363 students in the Class of 2023, 159 are going to four-year colleges or universities, 73 are going to two-year colleges and 9 are going to technical or trade schools. Also, 16 graduates are joining the military and 106 are entering the work-force.

In-state schools were shown favor among the graduating class, with 42 headed to nearby Salisbury University, 11 going to University of Maryland, College Park and another 11 moving on to Towson University.

The greatest plurality of students, 71, are taking their next educational steps at Wor-Wic Community College.

As people filed into bleachers and folding chairs before the ceremony began, baby pictures of each senior played on two screens beside the stage. The montage featured interjecting video clips of students in Decatur hallways recalling their favorite parts of high school and teachers saying goodbye to the graduates.

To begin the ceremony, 2023 graduate Jessica Beck gave an invocation, asking for a moment of silence for senior Joshua Alton, who died Nov. 29, 2022, after a battle with cancer.

“We thank the Lord for equipping these graduates with numerous and diverse gifts,” Beck said.

Following Beck, Senior Class President Stephen Wade gave the student address as rows of seniors sat facing him at the forefront of the stage.

The class dawned blue and white regalia, many with decorated graduation caps that bore DIY college emblems, flowers or poetic messages.

Wade praised the class as one of the best to walk the halls in recent years, and emphasized the old adage, “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.”

“Today would not mean anything without the journey it took to be here,” Wade said.

“We are all united by one thing,” Wade later said. “We are all Seahawks, and we’ll always continue to be Seahawks.”

Superintendent Louis Taylor, for whom the stadium was named and an alumni of SDHS, told the students, “I do bleed blue.”

Taylor highlighted the qualities of

See SPEECH Page 36