Posted: Jul 08 2016 at 9:01pm | Views: 2294
Co-op City Achiever Keyon Purnell - Head of the Class
Keyon Purnell, of Building 18 in Coop City, broke all records when he graduated from Linden Hills High School in Hawthorne, NY on Friday, June 24, 2016.
He received not one, but two Monetary Scholarship Awards for Academic Excellence, one of which is for each of his four years in college.
This award came from the State Department of Education, The University of the State of New York.
Keyon Purnell was awarded the New York State Comptroller's Achievement Award which is presented each year to a student who has excelled academically and has shown leadership potential by volunteering his or her time to serve the school or community. These awards were followed by yet another award for Community Service from Blythedale Children's Hospital for working with their students each Friday during the school year.
The school superintendent, Mark Silverstein, also awarded Keyon with a fully loaded laptop for college while the school district presented him with a
Kindle Fire. With all of the aforementioned accomplishments to his credit, Keyon Purnell was the only member of the graduating class to receive a Regents Diploma.
The icing on the cake came when Keyon was recognized as "Head of the Class" and declared valedictorian. In his address, Keyon make a point of saying, "I was taught early on that school was my first priority. That giving anything but my best was unacceptable."
His valedictory address was so moving and so sincere that the entire audience was on its feet when he said his last word.
This fall, Keyon Purnell will be entering Westchester Community College as a freshman. He did indeed give his best.
The family Ruth E. Edwards
