Graduation Speech : High School Diplomas

So far, all throughout high school, I have done my best in school. I strive to get the best grades I can. There are many opportunities out there, college related, that many people out of high school don’t have. I make sure I take advantage of these opportunities because all the hard work will be very rewarding in the end. During my sophomore year of high school, I had the chance to get into a four-year program that would have me take college classes while still in high school. Also, I would be able to job shadow different careers, practice interviewing skills, and get an internship. By the end of this program I would have an associate’s degree and have developed very useful skills necessary for a career. This whole program would be free.

Throughout life people go through so many adversities. Whether it be good or bad there is always something that arises out of the situation. One of the most thrilling, but yet frightening events to take place throughout someone’s life would be graduation. For many people, graduating from high school is an objective. It takes a lot of time, effort, and determination to accomplish that goal. For others graduation is the end of high school, and the beginning of a new chapter in life. When graduated people feel as if adulthood has begun. In the long run, graduating opens a lot of opportunities for people to thrive.

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..

Throughout the years I have learned that life is not as simple as it is made out to be. It is filled with twists, turns, and challenges you never expected to face. If I were told a couple years ago that I would at UCF for my undergraduate, I would have not believed you. All my years of schooling have been those of great difficulty. Not only due to academics, but also mainly due to the fact in which I was bullied immensely. Being bullied not only took a toll on me mentally, it also hindered my ability to properly attend school, and do work efficiently.

It is often believed that during high school, everyone changes, wither it’s in a good way or a bad way, we all change. I was that typical high school cheerleader that didn’t care about her grades, I just wanted to have fun with friends and brush by school with C’s, but I was okay with it during those times.

Early teenagers look forward to one thing during their final year in middle school, high school. Some high school graduates may consider those four years the best years of their life because of the minimal stress and care free living. The purpose that high school serves in the twenty first century is to prepare students for college. A few minor reasons for high school are preparation for the workforce, community building, and socialization. With approximately only twenty five percent of freshmen classes graduating, the high school education is in danger. A high school diploma in the twenty first century is a necessity. According to Koenig, “high school dropouts make $200,000 less than a high school graduate in a life span” (76). As poverty increases, the high school drop out rate is increasing as well. Many high school dropouts do not fully understand the importance of a high school diploma. The outcome of not receiving a high school diploma should be made visual through a students time spent in school. The high school education is in jeopardy because of family background, students themselves, and academics.

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.

In the beginning of 8th grade we were asked to write a letter to ourselves explaining how our year was going so far. You were to write the letter, place it in an envelope and open it on the last day of school. Although it was a mandatory assignment, I enjoyed reading my opinions from the first couple days of school and I thought I would write one again. This week I completed my first week of high school, and I thought I would share my POV so that I could later look back on this and see how a “naive” freshman saw things.

“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).

their high school diploma. When P-TECH initially started, it included on grade 9 and added a grade every year until it became a complete high school. The focus of P-TECH is to provide students with college level work in high school so they can earn their Associate degree at City Tech in what are called the grade 13 and 14. In personal interview with Mr. Brian Donnelly, the Deputy Director of Early College Initiative at CUNY, he described that in students who are part of P-TECH experience grades 13 and 14, which entails that they are still a high school student because they have some high school requirements left and also have not completed the CUNY proficiencies. However, students are still taking college courses and therefore can complete up to an Associate’s degree in CUNY. Currently, the grade 14 has not been added to the P-TECH schools, but this will added within the next upcoming year.

In high school I was involved in a lot of community service. I participated in a group that was focused mainly on preserving the environment. Every year, our school celebrates Earth Day, which is a huge event that is held every year in April to celebrate the earth and the environment. Our group was actually the head of the celebration. Hensler’s Nursery donates hundreds of baby trees to our school every year. We go and dig up the trees, get them ready to be handed out and then hand them out, every year. We also put on a program at the elementary school every year teaching students about the environment and why it is important to protect the environment. We always passed out either baby pine trees or plum trees. We teach the kids how to

The most anticipated moment in High School occurs at the start of Junior year; students come to the realization that college is right around the corner, so they must begin their college research. Some High Schools hosts college fairs or college visits which would help students begin their college research. There are many factors that must be considered when choosing the right college such as cost of tuition; location; academics; wide range of majors, and most importantly if you meet the requirements. One major fact that either prevents or encourages a student to apply to a specific University is the acceptance rate. If the acceptance rate is low, like Stanford (the acceptance rate in 2016 was 4.8%) High School seniors are less likely to apply. Students also have to carefully choose the colleges they want to apply to because college application are expensive, averaging ninety dollars per application. The minimum number of colleges that students are told to apply to varies from counselor to counselor. Students could always apply to more colleges but the application fees add up. Therefore, students tend to gravitate towards colleges that they have a higher chance of getting accepted into. A plan that has been implemented in several universities called The Affirmative Action plan promises to increase diversity on college campuses and ensuring racial and gender inclusion. For example, there would be an increase of minorities on campus. With this in mind, more minority students

As spring comes to an end and summer is soon to begin, many high school seniors will embark on their last true summer before going off to college. Many of these kids may be receiving a scholarship or a grant, or a bill to help pay for school, and have to pay the rest out of pocket to cover the remaining expenses. With the economy still not being as strong as it once was, and many people trimming down their budgets, economic resources may be scarce, many people resort to the only choice they have left and take out student loans. Which in essence is what is crippling our economy.

The teenage years a is time in which high school students are faced with important decisions and are becoming young adults. This is an important transition in life. Post-secondary education is critical, as a matter of fact, it is a credential crucial for economic success; inevitably, in some cases, it is the opposite. As pressure intensifies near the end of high school, it is essential for students to unconventionally take time off school -- not learning -- before proceeding on to postsecondary education, to ensure a promising future.

High school students in China are faced with many challenges throughout their education. Some of these challenges include taking the Gaokao exam in order to receive a diploma. The Gaokao exam, also known as the National Higher Education Entrance Examination, is an academic examination that high schoolers need to take prior to entering any higher level education in the future. This test consist of mathematics, Chinese literature, English, and the choice of humanities or natural sciences. Over a course of two days, Chinese students must test for nine hours. It is typical to say that the Gaokao is the most important exam in China for every Chinese students. Nearly every student would need equivalent to ten years of education to have the necessary preparation for this exam. When facing the Gaokao exam, students tend to not drop out of school early to avoid the test, they typically try to accomplish the test again even though they are discouraged from narrowly failing, and the students that narrowly pass the exam and achieve their diploma are more likely to be successful in China’s labor market than the students that narrowly failed to pass the exam. The Gaokao exam is a very important exam in China because it required for higher education and jobs.