Lehighton Area High School's brightest academic minds were honored at the 29th annual Top 10 Percent banquet.

At the ceremony, held at Franklin Township Fire Company, the district recognized top students in the classes of 2015, 2016 and 2017.Guest speaker Gordon Ripkey, echoing the words of Winston Churchill, had students and their parents repeat the lines, "I will never give up, I will never never give up, I will never never never give up."A former Lehighton high school administrator, Ripkey told students they need three things moving forward in life: a dream, a plan and determination."When I look out and see the students here and what they have achieved, I feel that our country is in good hands," Ripkey told students. "You are our future."It won't come easy or without help, he warned."History is full of individuals who have found success, but only after much failure," Ripkey said. "They were determined. None of us achieve anything special by doing it alone. Take time to thank your parents for all they have done for you."Lehighton Area High School Principal Craig Reichl and Assistant Principal Jennifer Evans handed out the awards, while describing the student achievements."The students here are accomplishing incredible things and we are very proud of them," Reichl said.Students from the Class of 2015 who earned Top 10 Percent honors are Kelsey Andrews, Abigail Applegate, Kirkland Breiner, Emily Cerimele, Kyle Collins, Brandon Cressley, Britani Graver, Danielle Guckin, Michael Haydt, Holly Hinkle, Leah Hoover, Brianna Karpowicz, Marissa Michalik, Ellen Perkins, Shelby Snyder and Falyn Weiss.The following seniors were also top in their respective courses: Andrews, Business Law II, World Studies; Cressley, Networking and Web Page Design; Haydt, Honors Environmental Science, Hoover, Honors Anatomy II, Honors Statistics; Karpowicz, Honors Physics, AP Physics, Calculus III; Weiss, AP English Literature and Composition.Class of 2016 honorees are Daniel Baka, Caleb Carpenter, Zachary Christoff, Wyatt Clements, Tegan Durishin, Parker Fairchild, Julia Fisher, Jacob Hoffner, Brody Hydro, Alyssa Jordan, Joshua Knappenberger, Sara Martz, Cammi Nalesnik, Megan Nanovic, Andrea Schafer and Tanner Zwetolitz.Class of 2017 honorees are Julia Banning, Tia Brownmiller, MaryGrace Collins, Tyler Dietz, Andrew Ebbert, Matthew Eckhart, Kaitlin Higgins, Elise Johnston, McKenna Knappenberger, Ryan Moerder, Courtney Rehrig, Shawn Rutcosky, Morgan Yurasits and Pengcheng Zhang.