The Heights School held its 51st commencement ceremony on Sunday, June 9. This year, seventy-two young men walked through the campus as a class for the last time before arriving in the school’s gymnasium for commencement. The school’s Men’s Chorus sang the National Anthem and To The Heights and Rev. Diego Daza offered an invocation, followed by commencement remarks and the presentation of diplomas.
Frank Buono, father of Michael ‘12, Vince ‘16, John Anthony ‘18, and Nick ‘24, gave the commencement address. Drawing on his experience in the legal profession–he currently serves as the Executive Vice President of Legal Regulatory Affairs and Senior Deputy General Counsel for Comcast Corporation–Mr. Buono encouraged the students to approach their work with a spirit of service to others, to always work at their best, to show gratitude to other people in their lives, and to search for the divine reality that their work contains.
The class of 2024 featured twenty-two lifers (students who have attended the school since third grade) and five sons of alumni, a new record for the school.
These graduates have been dedicated to service. Sixteen of them volunteered on Youth Service International’s Peru Service Trip and six of the grads participated in the school’s Jamaica Service Crescite trip.
In addition, fourteen of these seniors entered the ranks of Jackson Scholars upon successfully defending their thesis. Named after the School’s first longstanding headmaster, the Jackson Scholar Senior Thesis program is available to the strongest students in the senior class. Each invited student who elects to join the thesis program selects a faculty advisor to guide him throughout the academic year as he researches a topic of interest not covered in prior years. Throughout the year the student produces a substantial written work (30-40 pages) that he defends before a three-person faculty panel (the thesis presentation is followed by Q&A) and anyone from the community who wishes to join. Some topics this year included, Defending Personhood against the Threats of AI, Libero Arbitrio: Dante’s Free Will and its Purgation, and Mutilation or Medicine? An Ethical Exploration of Voluntary Amputations.
Moreover, the class of 2024 led their teams in a variety of athletic accomplishments: the soccer team won the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) Championship for the second time in five years, the climbing team earned first place in the Washington Area Interscholastic Climbing League (WAICL) Championship meet for the second time, and the cross country team won the Maryland Private School State Cross Country Championship for the first time in school history. Some of the graduates will continue to compete at the collegiate level in the following sports: Division I swimming (William & Mary and Mount St. Mary’s), Division I and III lacrosse (Iona University and Christopher Newport University), Division I rugby (West Point), and Division II cross country and track (Walsh University).
Our 2024 graduates will go on to a wide variety of colleges and universities next year, including: Catholic University of America (12 grads), University of Dallas (5), University of Notre Dame (3), University of Virginia (3), Hillsdale College (3), University of Navarra (3), Purdue University, University of Maryland, Christopher Newport University, Wake Forest, Texas A&M, Columbia University, University of South Carolina, Virginia Tech, West Point, Christendom College, Holy Cross College, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Montgomery College, Iona University, Walsh University, Brigham Young University, College of William & Mary, Benedictine College, Ave Maria University, John Paul the Great Catholic University, Loyola University Chicago, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Florida, among other universities, community colleges, and trade schools.
Congratulations to the class of 2024!
