Monessen’s Class of ’76 aids students

By JEFF OLIVER

For The MV Independent

Diana Zugaro Becker was winding down the final year of her career as the guidance counselor at Mt. Lebanon High School. 

With retirement directly in front of her, Becker had bittersweet feelings. She was looking forward to the next chapter of her life, but she was bothered because her last year at Mt. Lebanon was thrown into chaos by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I felt so bad for what our students, particularly our seniors, were put through,” she said. “The past four months were just so strange for our kids. It just seemed like a dark time for them when they should have all been so excited.”

Then something happened to her when the school had its awards program, which was done through Zoom.

One of her duties was helping to oversee some of the school’s scholarship awards for the program.

“The Mt. Lebanon Class of 1954 wanted to establish a scholarship for seniors,” she said. “They ended up giving two $500 scholarships out. They just wanted to help.

“During our Zoom ceremony, four of the members of that class were able to talk to the students getting scholarships,” she added. “These people were 84 years old and they were so excited to be able to help these two kids out in any manner they could. I’ll be honest, their conversations with the two winners brought me to tears. It was that moving.”

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