MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Warrior Run senior and Pre-Nursing and Health Sciences graduate Adrianna Bame was named as the Student of the Year during Lycoming Career and Technology Center's annual Senior Ceremony at Hughesville High School Thursday.

“We all have one thing in common … We are all here because of this amazing career and technology center.”

That’s what Adrianna Bame, who was among 88 seniors graduating from the Lycoming Career and Technology Center Thursday, named Student of the Year from the Warrior Run School District pre-nursing/health sciences graduate told her fellow graduates inside Hughesville Junior-Senior High School auditorium Thursday night.

“Three years ago we walked into Lyco CTC not knowing exactly what we were doing,” she said.

Some of us picked a program because it sounded interesting.

Some because a friend told us to and some of us just hope we made the right choice.

She implored the Class of 2026 to “please be proud of yourselves in this moment because the truth is that getting here hasn’t been easy. While others were sitting in classrooms we were learning how to actually do something.

Whether it was working with patients, building projects, fixing engines, creating amazing dishes, modeling the minds of the next generation, fighting crime and protecting the innocent or being computer geniuses we weren’t just students we were learning and we were becoming professionals in a world where becoming a professional is fastly disappearing.”

“In our programs we learn more than just skills, we’ll learn responsibility, we learn how to show up even when we didn’t feel like it, we learned how to work with others, solve problems and push ourselves past what we thought we could do,” Bame said.

She observed how she and her classmates were walking out of the center with “something powerful … not just a diploma but experience, certifications, confidence and direction.”

Some of the graduates head straight into the workforce, some are continuing their education, some are still figuring that out and that’s okay because, as Bame also gave kudos to her two instructors in her field of study – Dawn Shaffer and Amanda Wallace.

“Lyco CTC just didn’t just teach us what to do, it taught us what we can do,” Bame said.

“You’ve already proven you can work hard, learn fast and adapt.

“Don’t ever underestimate that.”