On the morning of Sunday, June 7, the IHA seniors received their diplomas at a drive-thru celebration. Students and their families drove through the IHA campus to receive their diplomas through their car windows from Ms. Patricia Molloy, president; Mr. Jason Schlereth, principal; and Miss Kerry Carroll'04, Mrs. Jo-Ellen DeSanta, and Mrs. Alice Rogers, assistant principals. The Immaculate Heart Academy faculty and staff stood outside of their decorated cars in the school’s parking lot to clap and cheer them on as they exited campus.

Mr. Jason Schlereth, principal, announced IHA’s 2020 Valedictorian, Grace Mendolia (Dartmouth University), and Salutatorian, Kang Hyun Ryu (Princeton University), in a video on May 22, 2020. The Class of 2020 received more than $43M in scholarship awards and 100% are attending four-year colleges and universities. Our seniors will be continuing their education at some of the most esteemed schools in the country, including five of the eight Ivy Leagues. Two young women, Angeline Jacob (Siena College) and Raghavi Patel (University at Albany SUNY) will be attending incredibly competitive BS/MD programs.

Even though it wasn’t possible to be physically be together in school for the last months of their high school years, IHA has made every effort to make this time as memorable as possible for the Class of 2020. Caps and gowns were personally delivered to every graduate’s house by faculty and staff members, signs of each senior’s graduation picture were put on display on IHA’s front lawn, and a Virtual Senior Week was held on all of IHA’s social media platforms to celebrate past traditions in a bit of an untraditional way. Additionally, hundreds of Immaculate Heart Academy alumnae wrote heartfelt notes to this year’s graduates to welcome them to the IHA sisterhood. Alumnae hand-delivered the notes (with a box of Krispy Kreme donuts!) to each senior’s house on Saturday, June 6, 2020. Each box of donuts had a sticker that read:

Celebrating the Class of 2020...
A sweet vision of the future.
Welcome to the IHA Sisterhood!

Thank you to the hundreds of alumnae who wrote letters and the many alumnae and their moms who made the special deliveries.

In-house awards were presented in a video that was posted on Friday, June 5, 2020 and Ms. Molloy and Mr. Schlereth made inspiring and memorable remarks to the Class of 2020 in a video that was posted on the morning of the diploma distribution.

The school plans to have a Graduation Ceremony in late July to hear speeches from Commencement Speaker, Dr. Denise Natali’81, Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations; Valedictorian, Grace; and Salutatorian, Kang. Graduation awards will also be announced at that time.

Congratulations to Immaculate Heart Academy's Class of 2020; you deserve to be celebrated! And please remember, you will always have a home at the heart.