John Jay High School’s Senior Recognition Night not only honored the accomplishments of the Class of 2025, but it offered a beautiful glimpse of the community groups, school associations and family memorials that support Katonah-Lewisboro students and send seniors off to the next stage of their lives with the knowledge that they are seen, and celebrated.
Students and their families gathered on John Jay’s front lawn for a ceremony that folded surprise and fun into the festivities. As the seniors found out which awards they’d won, catchy music samples accompanied them standing for applause, punctuated by several drive-by beeps. In all, 85 scholarships were awarded to over 100 students—with scholarship monies of about $115,000.
Dr. Steven Siciliano, principal of John Jay High School, began by acknowledging the recipients of the Class of 2025’s highest honors—Valedictorian Dakota Cameron and Salutatorian Kate Stevens.
He also recognized the school’s National Merit Scholarship Finalists William Harris, Austin Omin and Nina Vigil, and celebrated the State Education Department’s 2025 Scholarship for Academic Excellence Award recipients Dakota Cameron, Marc Milliot, Austin Omin, Kate Stevens, Madison Varriale and Nina Vigil.
The awards honored exemplary citizenship, excellence in the arts, contributions to the community, exceptional academic records, and much more.
Among the new awards this year were two in memory of Brooke D’Aleo, a Class of 2025 student who passed away last year after courageous battle with leukemia. Erin Samuelson will carry on her legacy of hard work and kindness as the recipient of the Brooke D’Aleo Softball Scholarship; Maeve Sullivan will live into her legacy as recipient of the Brooke D’Aleo Memorial Scholarship.
READ FULL LIST OF AWARDS AND RECIPIENTS HERE
Assistant Principal Dr. Samir Biswas presented 31 Department Awards. Chris McCarthy recognized a full 40 recipients of the Jay Award, honoring athletes who have played six or more seasons in a varsity sport.
Among the highlights of the evening was the announcement of Max Wasserman’s admission to West Point through an Army ROTC Scholarship, presented by Retired Army First Lieutenant Joseph M. Frullaney, West Point Admissions Congressional District Coordinator and West Point Class of 2016. In his congratulations to Max for the accomplishment, Dr. Siciliano noted that in the last nine years, John Jay has had six students accept appointments to various U.S. military service academies—a tribute to students’ excellence in academics, extracurricular activities, athletics and personal qualities.
Dr. Siciliano delivered the final two awards which celebrated academics as well as strength of character and impactful leadership.
On behalf of the school’s administrators, he named Jacob Friedman as the recipient of the Administrators’ Recognition Award, honoring his outstanding character, resilience, and dedication to positively impacting others.
In recognition of not only excellence in the performing and visual arts but making a positive impact on the school as well as the community, Dr. Siciliano awarded Cade Schwark the Principals Award.
At the ceremony’s conclusion, John Jay’s front lawn, site of so many JayFests and Field of Honor celebrations, hosted the seniors one final time – at a lawn party with refreshments provided by the PTO.