Bucks County Intermediate Unit Honors and Celebrates Their Class of 2022 Graduates

The Bucks County Intermediate Unit (Bucks IU) was extreme­ly proud to hon­or and cel­e­brate the 45 grad­u­ates of their Class of 2022.  This year’s grad­u­at­ing class includes spe­cial edu­ca­tion stu­dents from 11 Bucks County School Districts, and the School Districts of Eastern Lancaster, Philadelphia, Spring-Ford, and Wyoming Valley. Family, guardians, and friends of the grad­u­ates, along with Bucks IU staff, gath­ered for the grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny on Monday evening, June 6, 2022 in the audi­to­ri­um of ­William Tennent High School in Warminster, PA.

The evening began with a wel­come by Dr. Lenny Greaney, Bucks IU Assistant to the Executive Director, fol­lowed by the first stu­dent of the evening to have a spe­cial role in the cer­e­mo­ny. Graduating senior Autumn Letzo, rep­re­sent­ing the Centennial School District, was hon­ored with lead­ing the assem­bly in the Pledge of Allegiance. Dr. Mark Hoffman, Bucks IU Executive Director, then pro­vid­ed the open­ing remarks. 

Always a high­light of the evening are the stu­dent keynote speak­ers. First to present was Jeremiah Jackson from the Spring-Ford School District. Jeremiah spoke about how the Bucks IU pro­grams have helped him pre­pare for his future life out in the ‘real world’ by help­ing him to grow as a per­son. He stat­ed, “I have learned how to make healthy meals, cope with my stress­es, and be open to var­i­ous job oppor­tu­ni­ties. With my new growth mind­set, I feel con­fi­dent head­ing into the future.” 

The sec­ond stu­dent keynote speak­er was Bradley Mundt, a stu­dent intern through Project SEARCH Bucks; a nine-month intern­ship pro­gram for young adults with intel­lec­tu­al and devel­op­men­tal dis­abil­i­ties who have a goal of achiev­ing com­pet­i­tive employ­ment. Bradley spoke about grow­ing up with var­i­ous dis­abil­i­ties, the strug­gles he faced, and how he nev­er would have believed he could achieve what he has. Bradley’s intern­ship began in IT and was so suc­cess­ful that it not only became his sin­gle focus but evolved into him being giv­en an open-ended, paid intern­ship position. 

This year’s com­mence­ment address­es were joint­ly pro­vid­ed by Mr. Ronald Jackson, Vice-President of the Bucks IU Board of School Directors and par­ent of a Bucks IU stu­dent, and Mr. John D’Angelo, President of the Bucks IU Board of School Directors. Recognition of the grad­u­ates was led by Dr. Jen Hertwig, Bucks IU Program Director of School Age Programs, with grad­u­a­tion cer­tifi­cates dis­trib­uted by Dr. Hoffman, Mr. Jackson, and Mr. D’Angelo. The evening end­ed with clos­ing remarks by Sarah MacKenzie, Bucks IU Special Education Teacher, STEP. 

Bucks IU Executive Director Dr. Mark Hoffman stat­ed, “I speak for all Bucks IU staff when I say how proud we are of the effort, deter­mi­na­tion, and resilience of these amaz­ing stu­dents. They have worked incred­i­bly hard to reach this impor­tant mile­stone and to grad­u­ate. Congratulations to all our Bucks IU grad­u­ates with our best wish­es for a won­der­ful future!”