Coca-Cola Park Stadium, home of the IronPigs, hosted friends, family and faculty of the Lehigh Valley Academy for its 2023 graduation ceremony June 6.

LVA CEO Susan Mauser gave welcoming remarks and introduced speakers, including Scott Kiskaddon, who said, “The faculty here at LVA are genuinely inspired and amazed at what you have accomplished here, and we are glad to have had even a small part of your journey through life.”

Student council speaker Mina Akyildiz urged her fellow graduates to, “Take a moment when walking across that stage and into the next steps of your lives to live in the moment.”

Twenty-eight students were recognized for completing their entire academic career (K-12) at LVA. Twenty-six students elected to take the full IB Diploma Programme Diploma and 15 students elected to take the full IB Career-related Programme Diploma.

A majority of graduates plan to attend two- and four-year colleges and universities. Several are also entering the military.

Many of the 93 graduates wore cords representing a variety of honor societies including the National Honor Society, National Art Honor Society, Spanish National Honor Society, French National Honor Society, Mathematics National Honor Society, Tri-M Music Honor Society, Science National Honor Society and the National English Honor Society.

According to US News, LVA’s high school is the number one ranked high school in the Allentown metro area, in the top 4 percent of Pennsylvania schools and top 5 percent of high schools in the country. The charter school first opened its doors in 2002.