I feel overwhelmed with emotions standing here before you this evening. It was only two years ago I remember sitting in this hot gym, on the hard bleachers, as many of you are tonight watching commencement. I was a newly single mother with three children. I had been homeless, had little education and did not have much self-esteem. Ron Wales, an attorney spoke at that commencement. Four months later he was shot and killed.
I will always remember his enthusiasm and energetic presence when he spoke here that evening. It touched me deeply. He sent a strong message to "have a voice, take a stand in life, NOT letting life happen to you, but instead to be present in our lives." I took this message to heart. It gave me courage to NOT let the sadness of my divorce and loss of my home destroy my life. I now stand before you in my cap and gown, waiting to receive my Associate of Arts diploma and on my way to my next goal: earning a Master's degree in Social Work.
All of us here this evening come from different backgrounds and will take different paths. Some of us will go on to a four-year college, for others we start new jobs, while some us will look for a new job. Whatever your circumstance, whatever your degree, remember YOU have a voice that no other has in this world. Your voice is important, and it needs to be heard.
During my time, many students inspired and encouraged me to keep going in the midst of adversity. These students were international students, immigrants, single parents, families, young running start students and people retraining for new jobs. I wish I could share all their inspirational stories. What I can say now is, your lives speak volumes and I won't forget you.
One particular student who stands out in my mind was a young blind man in my chemistry class. He put forth an incredible effort each day to get an education. I watched him learn molecular structures. I watched him labor over the assignments with a tutor. I saw him earn an A in the class.
After the quarter ended, he told me he was taking a break from school because of the chronic pain he suffered from his eyes. A few months later, while I was with my daughter shopping in the University District, I saw him walking alone with a cane in the midst of traffic and crowds.
David McCullough Jr., delivered the commencement at Wellesley High School in Massachusetts on June 1st 2012 to staff, the 2012 graduates, and their family and friends. The speech was straightforward and supplied valuable information for their future. . McCullough’s speech at times felt harsh, offensive, and insulting. His words and examples were given to achieve insight, knowledge, and awareness for each student’s future. The commencement expressed a great deal of achievement, but conveyed that there was more work to be done. His speech was effective and appreciated through humor parallelism, repetition, and anaphora. His point of view has obtained respect and determination by all those that have been challenged and have heard his words.
Angela Davis, a renowned political and civil rights activist, was invited in 2012 to Pitzer College to give the commencement speech to the graduating class. Her speech touched on important points in her life as well as many of the values she fought for and believe in. I have never heard her speak before watching this commencement address, and my initial thoughts when hearing her speech was that she was old. Her speech was slow and at first a little boring. However, as her commencement continued onward, she started to get more into rhythm and while she stayed relatively slow, the power behind her words as she spoke made me want to listen more to what she had to say. Angela Davis has had an interesting history as an activist and educator, and
When I was in elementary school, I loved to read. I was a total nerd back then ... okay maybe I still am, but one thing has changed. Now I don't so much like reading. My favorite poet was Shel Silverstein, who wrote "Where the Sidewalk Ends." He seemed like he was a total hippie, but that's cool because I like hippies. My grandma is a recovering hippie. I like her too. Anyway, Shel Silverstein wrote about the coolest things. He wrote about magical erasers, eating whales and a boy with long hair flying away from people who were taunting him. He captured all of the things that I loved without knowing that I actually loved them. Now you may ask, how does this hippie relate to our graduation? Well, he wrote a poem entitled "Traffic Light" and this is how it goes:
Good evening. Some of you out there may not realize this but those of you who attended Suntime Middle School have been with this guy for the last seven years. I would like to ask you all, not just Suntime Middle School grads and who all else, to join me in thanking Mr. Weather for his patience and dedication to the success of our education over the years. We are the Class of 2000. The first graduating class of the new millennium. The past four years have been pretty wild. We started out as a bunch of rats in a small cage, but as time went by we learned and matured and became big rats in a new small cage, but in any case, the cage door is now opening; the handlers turning us wild things loose. As we leave "Where the Wild Things Are," home to some of the best cat fights, fist fights and food fights this side of the Cascades, I have a little surprise for all of you sitting in front of me here tonight in your caps and gowns … we ain’t seen nothing yet!
As a parent, Deputy Chief Michael Beckman’s talk about his son’s suicide was very moving. To stand in front of a group of complete strangers and discuss the hardest thing you can face as a dad, shows great resiliency and character. Even more difficult is to stand in front of the group and admit your own faults and how they possibly played a role in some of your son’s behaviors. Steven’s life began to spiral out of control and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He admitted he made repeated empty threats to his son, however never followed through with the consequences.
Right now, most of you reading this are twenty somethings with extremely bright futures ahead of you. Many of you were the stars of your high school, if not area, if not state, if not country. Then you got here and things changed. All of a sudden, everything was challenging. From the first moment you got here you were in competition with all the other freshmen for spots in a fraternity, sorority, independent living group, or dorm. You compared SAT scores, compared achievements, and found that they, like you, were amazingly accomplished. Many were National Merit Scholars, AP Scholars, Governor’s School participants, Math Olympiad winners, Science Fair winners, and Scholarship recipients.
My experience as a first generation low-income student is what fuels my motivation to succeed. My struggles are the reasons I’m so driven in my education. I strongly believe that receiving a higher education is the only way to improve my life. I work hard every day to make ensure I’m successfully building a foundation for my future. Through my challenges, I’ve found my passion to help students strive personally, professionally, and academically at UCI. I‘m determined to become a foundation for students who come from similar backgrounds because I understand the obstacles that might arise and I can relay the wisdom and knowledge I have attained so I can help the individual. My choice of majors, the extracurricular activities I’m involve in, and anything I do reflects my passion of helping students strive at
This meeting lasted about 1 hour and I felt very welcomed in this warm compassionate setting. Attending this meeting, I knew that I wasn’t going to be judged or looked down upon because of my situation or issues. Everyone who attended this meeting has a story to tell and that is why they choose to come. I choose to attend this meeting because of my past struggles, so I felt that I could relate to the material that was presented. The ...
Now she can give back to her family. She was fortunate enough to receive a college education and earn a Master’s degree in psychology from University of Houston- Downtown. She also decided to major in International Business and could do so with the help of an HSF scholarship. Better off now, she provides back to her community by providing therapy to those without resources. She has partnered up with many nonprofit organizations and advocates for the awareness of mental illnesses in countries who don’t support it. Advocates to support and increase many countries to improve access to mental health treatment, care for depression, substance abuse, and many other mental illnesses. She also advocates awareness of the rising suicide rates in many parts of the world. She wants to be a supporting hand just like those who supported her throughout her
As a young lady, I have been able to develop and procure the benefits of an outstanding education through various situations in my day to day life, both as an intern and as an undergraduate student at Fordham University. Throughout my experiences, I have taken advantage of many learning opportunities. Regardless of any environment, I have the ability to learn and develop as a person. I believe it is my strength to keep going and never give up that has led me to be very well-defined and the changes I undergo every day that passes will lead me to ultimate success. Ever since I was a kid, I have always wanted to accomplish something for myself, my future and change my life forever. I always believed that setting goals and pushing myself towards
The fundamental values taken from the lessons my mother, Samara D. Kendrick, has taught me that I am in control of my destiny and the future success and/or failure that will result based on my actions, decisions and beliefs. While being told by the administrative staff of my high school that "one day only a handful out of five-hundred students would go to college", with direction from my mother, I have learned to motivate myself with alternative goals and convictions. For the past four years, this statistic has stuck in my mind and has served as a catalyst for me to work diligently and with purpose. While attending high school, I have taken college dual-enrollment classes, participated in the schools H.O.S.A (Health Occupations Students
It is probably a mistake that I am standing here giving a speech for graduation. In fact it is probably a mistake that I am even graduating from this school at all -- believe me, just as most people in this class I have tested the limits of attendance, of sleeplessness, and of procrastination. At the beginning of my high schooling, I was even testing dropping out ... and if that wasn't a mistake, I don't know what was. After four years of Starr altering our minds, it seemed most fitting for me to spend my four minutes talking about mistakes. Thank goodness for them, by the way -- it is only when we truly screw up big time that we are ever stopped in our tracks -- stopped, briefly, to learn lessons of worth.
Until this day I still remember all those horrible episodes I had to go through. Those moments are my motivation to keep pushing even when I'm being hold back and when doors close right on my face. This is one of my biggest accomplishes no only because I confronted every single obstacle in my way but also because I fought for what I wanted, I fought for my dream. I realized that I want to follow a career in politics and economics. One day I will help my homeland to make a change. My goal is to create space for a better educational system and youth programs that makes society see that there is a whole world out there for them. Opening this view for many will make it easy to see all the opportunities and different pathways they can take. I do not want anybody to go through what I went through. Everybody deserves the chance to make their dreams possible. I want to create that
The choices and the opportunities that provided here have motivated and inspired me to pursue higher education. I began to have an ambition, and I began to have a set plan, working step by step to achieve my career goal. My focus as an undergraduate has always been with an eye toward graduate school and a career in International Development field. Aware of the thoroughness of graduate study, I always enrolled in the most challenge courses and courses that were most qualified in my area of interest. With my previous volunteer experiences, I have developed the necessary skills and strengthened my weaknesses, which will strongly enhance my ability and candidacy to pave the way to my career
As a non-traditional student, I have a plethora of experiences that have led me toward the path I am pursing today. I took a sabbatical after high school, opting to spend the next few years traveling the country on a mission to find my true self. Throughout my journey I learned more about life than I had ever anticipated. I was not only forced to expose the true depths of myself, but I also experienced the very essence of mankind. Seeing what the land had to offer conjured a level of personal strength that I never knew I was capable of. As I learned more about myself, and about the world, I became remarkably aware of my morality, my beliefs and values, and ultimately discovered my purpose. Stemming from an innate yearning to help those who are unable to help themselves, working with children in need became a non-negotiable requirement of my future career path.