Angie Reinoehl/MDN The top two students graduating from TGU-Granville School are Sophie Bachmeier, left, and Mariah Lovro.

GRANVILLE – Seniors at TGU-Granville School, Mariah Lovro and Sophie Bachmeier are the valedictorian and salutatorian, respectively, for the graduating class of 2024.

The graduation ceremony for TGU Granville High School will be at 1 p.m. on Sunday, May 19, at TGU Granville High School.

“It’s kind of crazy because everyone talks about, ‘It’s going to go by so fast.’ And then all of a sudden you have two weeks left of high school and, obviously, you’re so excited, but you’re moving on to the next chapter of your life so it’s also kind of nerve wracking at the same time,” Lovro said.

Lovro, daughter of Alan and Amanda Lovro, is heading to the University of North Dakota this fall to study occupational therapy.

Lovro said she has always wanted to go into healthcare but couldn’t decide what she wanted to do. She fell in love with occupational therapy because she can work with people from birth to death in many different settings.

At TGU, Lovro is involved in volleyball, honor society, student council and FFA.

“Everyone tells themselves to take things more seriously, but I think I would actually say the opposite – take things less seriously. Like, don’t always be constantly doing school work. Enjoy things, go to games, hang out with your friends. Do all that kind of fun stuff because you really only get to do that once,” Lovro said.

Senior Sophie Bachmeier, daughter of Jason Bachmeier and Natasha Stevens, is going to attend Valley City State University to study exercise science and play for the women’s basketball team.

Bachmeier said she wanted to go into the medical field. She went from wanting to be a surgeon to a doctor, to a nurse but settled on exercise science so she can work with both sports and healthcare.

She is involved with volleyball, golf, FFA, honor society, student council and Science Olympiad.

Bachmeier said her favorite memory of high school was the class’s senior trip to Florida, where they got to explore and try new foods. The class had been fundraising since their freshman year for various events and decided to use their extra $5,000 for the trip.

When asked what advice she would give her younger self, Bachmeier said, “Don’t be so uptight. I would stress myself out about a lot of things. Just enjoy the stuff that’s happening around you. I’ve taken a lot of things for granted and I don’t like that. Looking back I wish I would have enjoyed those things a little bit more.”

The two students said they have enjoyed going to a school with such a small class size. Lovro said after working so closely together for such a long time, they know how everybody works, how each person is different and what other students do and don’t like. Because of this, all of the students get along well.

TGU-Granville Graduates

Sophie Bachmeier

Emilio Diaz

Camryn Jones

Roman Lilliquist

Mariah Lovro

Antonio Perez

Emma Pister