Mercer Island High School celebrated its 59th annual commencement exercises Thursday evening at KeyArena. Mercer Island’s graduating class of 345 students featured three valedictorians and included five presidential scholar candidates.

Those in attendance were treated to a pre-ceremony concert courtesy of the MIHS Orchestra. The class of 2016 heard speeches from valedictorians Andrew Barnwell, Sara Federman and Dana He, as well as from senior class officers Matthew Zimmer, Alexa Bauman, Kayla Kim and Jess Blakeslee.

Faculty speaker Dino Annest encouraged the class of 2016 to “Walk on the Wild Side,” while class speaker Ryan Jones urged his classmates to “Stop Being A Student.”

Graduating singer-songwriter Henry Mansfield performed his original song “Roseland” on piano and began a sing-along with the crowd. Gilda Afifi, Natasha Goffman, Makenna Moscatel and Barnwell gave a performance of “No Matter Where You Are” by Michael Alvarado.

Riley Fang and Don Le performed a rousing keyboard-sax medley of songs specifically chosen for the class of 2016 that included “Thrift Shop,” “See You Again,” “Rather Be,” “Sorry,” and “All of Me.” And one last time before their peers, the senior class officers returned to lead their graduating class in the ceremonial tassel flip.