Graduation Speech : High School Diploma

The programs and initiatives that are going to be discussed and evaluated for their respective effectiveness are CUNY Pathways-STEM Waivers, the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP), and Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH). The data and information from these programs will shed light on which factors needs to be involved when implementing a CUNY wide policy from the CUNY Central Administration. A policy for STEM education in CUNY would increase the likelihood that more CUNY students will graduate with a STEM degree and therefore meet the demand for STEM-related

Day after day I had always regretted not finishing school. Every day that went by Reminded me how much I needed to complete my education. I would remember applying to jobs and always seeing that dreaded sentence saying “must have High school diploma or equivalent’’. The memory of those days still feel as if it was just yesterday that I was without education. Growing up I never realized how much I would need education in my life. Education is needed to overall make a decent living in order to survive. All of the jobs that I was working at the time were either fast food or hard labor. In my early 20’s I soon figured that there were no short cuts to success. If I wanted to make decent money, I need a decent education. I then started researching how to get my General education diploma. Since I was too old to return to high school to finish that was my only option. I remember it was like yesterday walking onto the Community college property where the test was given to inquire about signing up to take it. Everything on campus looked so well put together in my eyes. I knew at that time that I wanted to be a future college student. I felt like I belonged there, but I was missing one thing a GED to qualify for enrollment. Being in the scenery of an actual college environment showed me just how much I was missing and made me more determined to follow up on my dreams of one-day graduating from college. As I neared the testing centers door my heart started pounding. I noticed that I

Many individuals believe that attending college directly after high school is a life changing experience This stance can hold true for many reasons regarding the positive aspects for the completion of a college degree. Students should attend college directly after high school because they are more experienced and have great opportunities and benefits rather than waiting to go later on in life.

Senior year was amazing. I could go on and on with all kinds of new adventures, friends, and experiences I made, but let 's just take you back to the start of things. It was a new year, a fresh start back to school. We were in our final year. At first I didn’t know how to feel, I just felt was happy to be back at school because that meant seeing all of my friends I hadn’t seen over the summer. The year started off good. I loved all my new classes, football season was coming up, and I met the most wonderful girl in my life. Other than going to high school games I wasn’t much of a going out type of person, but I knew this would be my last year ever to enjoy everything high school had to offer. So I just tried to make the most of it. I went to almost every school home sporting event, I started going out more and enjoying the people around me, and did things I usually wouldn’t have done. I just made every second count like it was my last. Overall the school year was pretty great. We never really were a school known for winning in sports, but other than those bumps and curves I really loved it. I would definitely do it again if I could.

Graduating high school was a big defining moment in my life. It is a step closer to the real world, a step closer to my future and that is what most exciting about leading up to this day. Preparation to graduating high school was difficult for me there was a lot of ups and downs, but it got easier once I took things more serious and not as a joke. Having that feeling of knowing that your family members are proud of you is an amazing feeling and having my grandmother explain to me how she felt on my graduation day was heartwarming. The day of graduation I was a nervous wreck, but it was all worth it in the end. Graduating changed my life in a lot of different ways that I wouldn’t have expected but only for the better..

“I had been enrolled in a math resource classes from the ninth grade, and was instructed at a slightly lower grade level than my classmates. Despite this, I was repeatedly administered the TCAP on a higher grade level than the one at which I was taught. As a result, I was unable to pass the math section by the end of the senior year” (page 73).

I was an average student in high school. I took a few challenging and AP courses, but I wasn’t an overachiever who earned an A in every course, however, I also wasn’t failing any of my class. I was the student who did the minimum work that was needed to pass the course. This eventually resulted in meeting with my assigned school counselor only once a year because it was mandatory. However, during my junior year I really began to focus on my future because I knew my years as a high school was coming to an end. But because I didn’t have a relationship with my assigned school counselor, whom I felt was too busy with other students on her caseload because her office door was often close, I chose to seek out to another school counselor on campus. The high school counselor who helped answer my questions regarding college and gave me information about the SAT test dates and fee wavier was Mr. Rios. Due to help I received from Mr. Rios, I later joined the school volunteer club Mr. Rios was the faculty staff in charge of that later helped me build my resume, life experiences, and network. With the relationship with Mr. Rios, I chose to interview him because he inspires me to continue working hard in graduate school so that I too, can have a similar position like him as a high school counselor in the near future.

Due to a lack of decent jobs, half of all college graduates are still relying on their parents financially when they are two years out of school. In the US the bottom 40 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth, and College tuition has risen 10 times faster than the median family income. These are just a few issues that my generation, and more to come will face. My dream requires fair access to jobs and educational opportunities, work, and fair pay, all while empowering individuals to pursue their own passions.

My legs where tired, my mind was racing, my hands were shaking, and I had nowhere to run. Walking up the stairs to a pair of large glass doors just terrified me. I know I was going to be able to survive. I had to; there is no other way. Every step I took towards the entry way I could feel my heart rate accelerated as I cautiously looked around for a seat. I sat in the third row of an auditorium looking room. There were around twenty to thirty people sitting around looking at a blank projection screen waiting for my new teacher to arrive. In my head I had a description of a college professor which would be a older gentleman with brown laptop case and look intimidating and make me want to cry on the first day by assigning paper after paper for the enjoyment of watching me fail. I didn 't feel prepared at all high school was so different students didn 't live there and no one to remind students to do all homework the homework there assigned. My high school failed to prepare me because in high school we didn’t receive homework, and didn’t mentally prepare me for the new independence that I now possess.

“The future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens. We have everything we need to be that nation … and yet, despite resources that are unmatched anywhere in the world, we have let our grades slip, our schools crumble, our teacher’s quality fall short and other nations outpace us”-President Obama (Splitt).

In the year 2012, I was supposed to be excited and proud of myself. 2012 was the year that I graduated from high school. During the time following up to my graduation I was living in the moment I was pumped up because I was going to be done with high school. High school is known for being the best time of anyone’s life, and indeed it was. Well the time came around for me to check out of all my classes and the final thing was to practice for the actual graduation. Life seem to change more and more it started to feel more and more real. I realize that I was no longer going to be a young teen I was growing up. I had to start to think about college and work all these things were running through my head as I was practicing for graduation. I decide to stop thinking about that and just enjoy the moment. Well the day finally came for the big day I had my graduation and let me tell you it felt so unreal I never seen so many proud parents cheer and yelling when they heard the child’s name being announced as they received their diploma.

In most jobs, when you apply there are requirements that you need to be able to be even considered a good candidate for the job and be hired. Did you graduate high school? Do you have a college degree? A 3.00 GPA or above? Previous experience for at least two years? Most guardians tell you to work hard in school to have a bright future. If you want to find a good job they suggest you to look what are the requirements to be able to even be consider. When you start high school in some schools they have already assigned you to who you will end up been. If you got high school credits when still in middle school then you are advanced you go in a certain group. The teachers always tell you what you need to be able to attend a University. The teacher do not advertise students to start at a community college but are constantly reminding you how important is to have a higher education. The high school institutions has allowed the negative stereotypes about the students that attend community colleges because they contribute to the negativity tours does students. This stereotypes lead to discrimination.

In a small high school, everyone knows each other and every move made is scrutinized. Many people in my high school tried their absolute hardest to fit in, but for me uncomfortableness has always lead to a missed opportunity. I ran my high school. I was the kid who was president of everything, sat on the board of education and even had a little mailbox next to all the teacher’s mailboxes. Intense and extroversion are two words that I have always related to, but when the opportunity came to be crowned king of my school, I just wasn’t interested.

High school and college are both important periods in a student’s life. It’s the two most important stages in which students prepare to be professional in their studies. In high school students prepare to be successful in college. In college students prepare to be professionals in their careers. Although high school and college each serve as a place for preparation for students they are very different in scheduling, grading, and paying their education.

When you think of students in college you think of hard homework assignments, long essays with short due dates, the last minute studying for exams and of course the partying that everyone looks forward to when it comes to being in college. Do you ever think about what happens when you don’t do the homework, not turn in the essay on time and do horrible on the exams and party a little too much? When this happens, grades tend to fall and when grades tend to fall it usually means you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing, and when you’re paying thousands of dollars for an education most people can’t afford to take college as a game being played. For most students they don’t have a choice but to drop out because of all these outcomes.