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39 earn diplomas during 119th commencement MMI conducted its 119th commencement exercises on Thursday, May 26, as seniors were awarded diplomas by Llewellyn F. Dryfoos, III ’82, chairman of MMI’s Board of Directors. This year’s graduating class of 39 seniors amassed more than $4.6 million in merit scholarships and awards. The 2011 graduating class also attained an average SAT score of 1755, several hundred points above state and national averages. The commencement address was delivered by John Hersker ’76, the president and chief executive officer of Movie Tavern, a group of cinema dining establishments throughout the country. Movie Tavern, a chain of theatres featuring full-service dining in addition to first-run movies, employs more than 1,000 people across 14 locations in six states. In July, Movie Tavern expanded into its seventh state, Pennsylvania. Hersker previously spent time with the graduates, discussing possible topics for his speech with them. In response, he shared stories about the movie business as well as the role MMI played in his life. “Even in all my youthful cynicism,
Members of the MMI Class of 2011 pose for their official photograph.
I would have acknowledged the school’s obvious benefits: small classes, personalized attention from the faculty and administration, and classmates who were good people to grow up with. It is impossible to over-emphasize these aspects of an MMI education, which are as much in evidence today as they were then,” he said. “When I return to the Hazleton area now, I see the many social and economic challenges that this region – like most of the country – is facing. MMI strikes me as that proverbial shining city on a hill. It is prospering in the midst of adversity, and it is making a demonstrable improvement in the most precious resource a society has: the lives of its young people,” Hersker said. He advised the graduates to hold on to their dreams as they discover what they want their life’s work to be.
John Hersker ’76 delivers the Founder’s Day address during commencement exercises.
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“My career choice was based on the work that I knew I loved. That, in my opinion, is ideally what a career choice should be based on … To me, a career
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choice based on money or prosperity, without regard to how one feels about the actual work, is a recipe for unhappiness,” he said. During commencement exercises, valedictorian Joseph Michael McGraw reflected on the graduates’ years at MMI, saying, “Today, our four years of high school come to an end. In the course of four years, we read an endless pile of books, wrote paper after paper, solved countless math problems, and studied more than we slept. Because of the hard work that we put in, we are now all prepared to head off to college and for the next challenge that awaits. All of our teachers have helped prepare us for the future whether we are going to further our studies in engineering, pre-medicine, art, history, or business. “However, I think that we have helped each other the most. We learned to work together even when it was not easy, and because of it, we are prepared to face the
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See COMMENCEMENT, page 9
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