Staff photos / R. Michael Semple Youngstown Chaney High School graduates march together one last time into Stambaugh Auditorium for the school’s final commencement Wednesday morning. The school will consolidate with Youngstown East High School in the fall to form the new Youngstown High School on the city’s East Side. East will have its final graduation Tuesday morning, also at Stambaugh.

YOUNGSTOWN — Since she was a child, Lil Snider knew she wanted to enter the art world, and she has just added the latest significant brushstrokes to her life’s canvas.

“I’ve been serious about art since I was 12 years old. I fully decided to go into the art field as a freshman in high school,” she said.

Earlier this year, Snider learned she had been accepted into the Cleveland Institute of Art, a life brushstroke she will paint in August. But the latest colorful achievement she has made was being among the 129 Chaney High School Class of 2026 graduates who earned diplomas during a special ceremony Wednesday morning at Stambaugh Auditorium.

Also significant was the timing, because this marked the final class that will be graduating from the West Side school. The 2026-27 school year will be the first phase of the Youngstown City School District’s reconfiguration plan that will see Chaney and East high schools merged into a single Youngstown High School on the East Side and in the current East High building.

Another crowning achievement for Snider was being able to be part of a Sojourn to the Past traveling American history bus journey to major civil rights sites in the South when she was a freshman. Initially, Snider was nervous about being the sole ninth grader on the immersive journey, but she quickly made friends, then deeply absorbed — and has applied lessons from — a key slice of the nation’s civil rights history, she said.

Moving forward for Snider also means earning a bachelor’s degree in game design and animation, then landing a career possibly with a television studio or on a movie set, she said.

Higher education also is on Jade Nuby’s plate. The new Chaney High grad intends to enroll this fall at Youngstown State University to study cosmetology, she said. Nuby added that one of her proudest moments during her senior year was having done well on the state tests.

“I call them my ‘angel babies.’ These kids are going to do great things. They’re not only great in what they’ve achieved, they’re amazing human beings,” Tina Banks, a Chaney High English teacher, said about some students she had also when they were sophomores in her advanced-placement English classes.

Along those lines, Banks’ students have made her a better teacher, she said, adding that she’s highly confident they will go on to shine as writers and leaders.

Banks, who has taught 23 years in the district, including 10 years at Chaney High, added that she plans to retire to take another teaching position with the Mahoning County Educational Service Center.

Exuding a similar level of confidence in her students’ post-high school successes was Madonna Barwick, a 1985 Chaney High grad who began teaching at her alma mater in 2010.

“Once a Cowboy, always a Cowboy,” she said, referring to the school’s team nickname.

For her part, Barwick has worn many hats as a Chaney High teacher — excluding a cowboy one. In addition to teaching physical science, she also has served as the school’s yearbook advisor, assistant wrestling coach and as part of a 4-H Club.

Barwick, who will continue her teaching career at the new Youngstown High School, quoted Chaney High’s mantra — “Enter to learn, go forth to serve” — to describe the path she feels her students will take after earning their diplomas.

“It’s really exciting to be a Defender,” Barwick said, referring to the new school’s team nickname.

Delivering the keynote address was Joselyn Mitchell-Parker, a 2003 Chaney High grad who is the chief executive officer with the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southeast Michigan organization.

During her talk, which at times resembled a passionate Sunday morning sermon, Mitchell-Parker centered largely on the concept of “last,” saying that the word can connote negative narratives, but also can be viewed as a teaching tool, such as learning from one’s most recent mistake.

“The last time shapes how we move for the next time,” she told the graduates and the packed auditorium. “So, I ask you, Class of 2026, what happens next because of you?”

Not lost on Mitchell-Parker was the significance of the final graduating class’s place in school history. The students also will be part of a powerful legacy — something that “honors what’s beautiful, but remembers where we need to do better,” she said.

In addition, the Class of 2026 courageously pressed forward amid a series of challenges outside of the school walls, including recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, social unrest in the nation and political efforts to dismantle public education, said Mitchell-Parker, who earned a master’s degree from YSU and a doctorate degree from The Ohio State University. In addition, she founded SPEAK Project Ohio, a nonprofit entity that’s committed to empowering young people to become agents of their own freedom via education, art and community engagement.

Also making remarks were D’Artaniania Howard, class president, along with Sarah Kent and Nicholas McDonald, class valedictorian and salutatorian, respectively.

Kent, who was in Choffin Career & Technical Center’s practical nursing program, is to graduate in a few weeks to be a licensed practical nurse. She also implored her fellow grads to embrace being part of her school’s legacy.

In addition, Kent is part of the Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past organization and took the civil rights history bus journey through the South a few years ago.

“We are more than a graduating class; we are a graduating class that’s made history,” Howard said in her presentation.