L.A. Lutheran Middle-Senior High School (LAL) of Sylmar celebrated the school's 51st commencement ceremony on June 17 at the famous Liberty Hall at Forest Lawn.
LAL is a small school with a large heart for education.
The graduating seniors, 30 in number, received numerous scholarships, honors and awards. And, yes, 100 percent of the class graduated and 100 percent of these students are headed to college!
Valedictorian
Philip Kratz received many awards, including the University of Rochester Science Award, Accelerated Reader Award; President's Education Award, NASSP Citizenship Award, Bank of America Award in Math and Science.
Salutatorian
Kristine Habelmann was awarded the prestigious
Robert C. Byrd Honor Scholar Award, the Bank of America Award in English, NASSP Citizenship Award and the CSUN Art Galleries Invitation Award.
Adding to the festive mood at the commencement was one of the school's award-winning choirs, the LAL Concert Choir under the direction of
Ken Bauer. This fine choir performed two selections which captured the essence of this wonderful event:
Thomas Morley's "Sound Forth the Trumpet in Zion" and the ever popular
Andrea Bocelli's hit song "Con Te Partiro (Time To Say Goodbye)".
The audience was thrilled to hear the original Italian sung and equally thrilled to hear the choir's graduating seniors
Stephanie Dominick,
Casey Arias,
Casey Espinoza,
Shirley Guerra,
Kyrie Schmit,
Matthew Preston and
Kylie Thomas perform once more.
Please find photos attached of these seniors performing their final songs as members of this Gold Medal award-winning choir at this year's Heritage Music Festival inSan Francisco.
Los Angeles Lutheran Middle-Senior High School of Sylmar, located two blocks east of Los Angeles Mission College, is proud to boast that 50 percent ofits students are members of the National Honor Society. Thirty-three percent of the school's seniors received California Scholarship Federation Awards and 17 percent, namely,
Philip Kratz,
Kristine Habelmann,
Raymond Serrano,
Kyrie Schmit, and
Mitchell Schmidt, are Seal-bearers.
All-League Sports Awards werepresented in volleyball, football, basketball, baseball and track and field to seven graduates:
Shirley Guerra,
Raymond Serrano,
Casey Arias,
Kylie Thomas,
Adam Rey,
David Llamas and
Geneva Gallman.
The schools boast of its long-time award-winning music department as it awarded the John Phillip Sousa Award to
Raymond Serrano, Outstanding Instrumentalist 2007 to
Derek Raycroft and the Bank of America Award in Music to the award-winning Pride Concert Band's Concert Master,
Molly Randis.
Eight seniors in various disciplines were awarded Bank of America Awards.
LAL is also extremely proud of its art department. The California State University of Northridge Art Scholarship Awarded given to LAL senior
Mitchell Schmidt and the University of Rochester Kodak Award presented to
Raymond Serrano.
Los Angeles Lutheran is proud to send these fine seniors to many prestigious universities such as University of California, Santa Clara; UCLA; UC, Santa Barbara; UC, San Diego; Cal Poly University, San Luis Obispo; University of Arizona; and San Francisco State University to continue their education .
It is a tribute to Los Angeles Lutheran Middle-Senior High School's administration, teachers, staff, parents and the students that these fine students have achieved so much and have such a bright future before them.
Anyone who wants to receive information about this fine school is encouraged to call the school office at 818-362-5861. LAL is currently accepting applications for the fall term.