Huntley High grads mark firsts and lasts for school

The 2011 graduating class at Huntley High School represents a shift in the school’s history.

The 442 seniors who graduated Sunday comprise the largest class ever to graduate from the school, but they also will be the last class with fewer than 500 students.

“It is the largest graduating class and will be the smallest from here on out,” said Karen Miller, senior class sponsor and a school counselor. “We will never be under 500 students again.”

Huntley’s Class of 2011 also will be the last ones to hold commencement in the school’s gymnasium. The school will move its graduation ceremony to the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates beginning with the 2012 class.

It was a good year for the senior class, which qualified for the state Science Olympiad where teams finished first in anatomy and ecology, and third in protein modeling.

The class valedictorian is Umangi Patel, who will be attending Northwestern University in the fall.

Salutatorian A.G. Navarro, 18, said graduation is a transitional point in his life and the lives of his classmates.

“Graduation means a new start,” Navarro said. “We’re done with high school and we’re moving on to college where we can start again with new friends and a new environment.”

Navarro, whose grade-point average was 4.41 on a 4.0 scale, will attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he will study chemical and biomolecular engineering. He plans to go into oncology after medical school.

Other graduates of Huntley High School will attend colleges such as DePaul University, Drake University, the University of Iowa, Northern Illinois University and Loyola University Chicago.

In addition to the outstanding academic achievements of the graduating class, Miller said more than 160 students participated in the Silver Cord Program, which recognizes students’ volunteerism.

Those students completed more than 30 hours of community service during their four-year high school career beyond the hours required for the National Honor Society and Student Council, Miller said.

The seniors will give the school 47-inch television monitors to install in the cafeteria so that students can read as well as hear announcements that are being made.