Graduation Speech : High School

I have been going to school since I was four years old and, that means that I have been attending school twenty to twenty two years, including kindergarten, middle school, high school and now college. As every student, I had my ups and downs in school; I had some failures and some successes. One of the failures that affected me the most and that I will always remember was the time that I was in high school during my junior year. I failed almost all my classes and, I only passed two classes and with a C. In the other hand I had some really good success. The most recent one and the one that I am still happy about is getting my Family Development Credential. We learn from our mistakes and also from our successes, these two times in my life

My life has been one of constant motion like the ebb and flow of the ocean tide. My father’s military service meant that my family and I were nomads of the earth. We were shipped across the back and forth across the globe at the whim and will of the army. Assignment after assignment I packed my things without complaint and went to a new country, new home, new school to wherever I was told to go, but this year things changed. I finally had the freedom to choose where I wanted to be. My choice of college would signify a new chapter of my life and I would decide where it was going to start, and I could begin living it. I took my time; I visited different colleges but in the end, chose to remain close to my family who have been my main, and often only, support through life. When the

According to a report from Thomas Nelson Community College website, 15.7 percent is the graduation rate in 2010. 84 percent of students failed to receive their degree. That’s beyond sad. College can be difficulty especially with everyday life is getting harder to main family life work and financials. Because college is challenging, I know that I have issues that I must overcome. I told myself the more patient 's I have the better success I will have. Although college will be difficult my goal is to gain the knowledge. I need to improve through my life challenges so that I won 't end up a statistic.

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 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.

As a freshman in high school, school was my least favorite place to be and I also dislike going to class. My grades were inadequate by the time I was a sophomore. Toward the end of my sophomore year I met Dawn Pollman Kivlehan who is a teacher at Fowler High School. She is the head of the ESL (English as a Second Language) department. Mrs. Kivlehan was born and raised in Syracuse, New York and lived in a neighborhood called Tipperary Hill. She enjoyed in spending time with her family, listening to music and watching Fowler soccer. She had a bad habit of drinking Diet Pepsi every morning. I remember every morning she drinks Pepsi. She played field hockey in college and basketball in her early age. Her eyes changes color depending on the clothes she wears and, then green when she’s upset. Mrs. Dawn is fashionable during the week she always dressed up except Fridays. Friday she wears her soccer t-shirts. (She really loves wearing sweatpants after work). Dawn Pollman Kivlehan is hardworking, helpful, and very beloved teacher. (I can really say that she is one of the hardest working person I know)

Every year the percentage of high school graduates going to college after high school rises. But as the number of students increases, so does college tuition. In 2013-14 there was a 9% rise in CSU tuition with the average rise being 7% a year. As College prices rise, more student loans are withdrawn to help pay for increased tuition. Student debt isn’t like credit card debt or medical bills or a mortgage, where if you declare bankruptcy all your debt will be forgiven. Student loans stick with you until they are payed off in full plus interest. As a high school student who hopes to go to college in 2-3 years, I don’t know if I am really ready to assume thousands of dollars in student loans. So although colleges have had to raise prices due

The sun had set hours ago, yet I was hunched over my laptop scrolling through pages of college acceptance requirements. There was a constant internal battle; will I be able to get into this college? After my junior year of high school my application GPA was already set in stone. The only thing I could do now was improve my ACT score and compose an excellent college essay. Growing up on Mercer Island going to college was something 95% of all high school graduates attend. The pressure set upon me by my community and my dad was immense, and I was buckling. I vividly remember my dad sitting me down to show me my college savings account my freshman year of high school, no questions asked my journey to college immediately followed. I cannot let myself down, I cannot let my family down.

High school was one of the most challenging moments in my life. Not only did I have to deal with the academic pressures and social issues from my peers I had external factors that were heavily impacting me as well. During my junior year my mom separated from her husband and me and my three little brothers ended up staying house to house with close relatives. Shortly after that time at the beginning of my senior year, my mom was sent to prison. In the midst of dealing with all of the demands that any senior deals with I had to also carry the responsibility of taking care of my three siblings. I picked up more hours from my part time job and had help from my stepdad and extended family financially but my little brothers were depending on me psychologically. Times were tough. At times my attention shifted away from my academics and more so to the wants and needs of my siblings. I became so stressed out that I broke down and went to visit my high school counselor. She then recommended me to my school’s district Social Worker.

It was my senior year in high school and graduation was inching closer and closer. My high school principal stood on the stage of our auditorium introducing me as the recipient of the Principals Hall of Fame Award. As he stated proudly “Desiree aspires to return to North Miami Beach Senior High to teach science” it was hard for me to conceal my shock. How had he misinterpreted my future plans into becoming an educator and even more, to returning to my high school? I was sure that this was all a misunderstanding and I would continue on towards becoming the Neonatologist I had always dreamed of, still connected to children but only in the first moments of their lives. Little did I know, my principal was more in tuned to my destiny than I thought. I look back on this moment and it supports my belief that education has always been my calling.

Actually, in the high school students got test as the SAT where every student had to write about a topic in just twenty-five minutes, for to prove the improvement and skill of every student in redact, analyze and write an essay. Because the importance of the writing in the High school is focus in the making of new texts and the comprehension it, which good oriented and structured would convert in knowledge. The apprenticeship based in the writing; potency a whole of ideas, and generate bases for the elaboration of own writing that contain arguments; may be reference of others writers, but develop the essence lexical, linguistic and analytical that the students acquire and expand in that process of accompaniment, education and monitoring. In addition, there are students cannot develop a good essay neither understanding it, but it is by the lack of put their ideas in order and consistency in it. Smith says, “Last spring, at the same time that English professors across the country were suffering the every-semester hell of grading final papers, high school juniors were receiving scores for the first SAT writing section essay. Immediately, there were complaints: No one can write well in twenty-five minutes! The scores reward length!”(Smith 16). It for this, I am a favor in every student should to have the level adequate when he is in college. Given the reason that there are tools for improve the writing where help them to grow mentally doing it more easy for make an essay, also

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.

With regards to high school graduation, Balfanz, Herzog, and Iver (2007) followed 12,972 Philadelphia students enrolled in traditional middle schools from six grade (1996-1997) until 1 year beyond their expected graduation from high school (2003-2004) in order to understand what indicators would affect their projected graduation date. Unlike many of the early K-8 schools, the population Balfanz et al followed consisted of "64% African American, 19% White, 12% Hispanic, and 5% Asian students. Additionally, 97% of the sample attended schools that were majority minority" (2007, p. 227). Balfanz et al found that the four variables, or "flags," that had the highest predictive power and yield were: sixth grade attendance, failing math in sixth grade, failing English in sixth grade, and receiving an out-of-school suspension in sixth grade (2007). Second, the more flags that students had the lower their chances of graduating on time became. More specifically, one-flag, two-flag, three-flag and four-flag students had a 36%, 21%, 13%, and 7% chance of on time graduation, respectively (Balfanz et al, 2007). In debriefing of this study produced in 2010, Balfanz summarized the importance of his earlier findings: "during the middle grades, students in high-poverty environments are either launched on the path to high school graduation or knocked off-track" (Balfanz, 2010, p. 7).

It was late July, when I was on a helicopter in reset when I was approached by my coworker Ethan. I had only spent a couple of conversations with him before, but Ethan mostly stuck to himself. A quiet guy with piercing brown eyes and an untamed beard when he asked: “Are you going to start college this fall?” And that! Right there, was all it took! You see, I was never really a great student in High School, not because I didn’t understand the subjects, or I hated school, but rather, I concentrated more on my social life, my girlfriend, Hockey season in the winter, and Soccer and Baseball in the spring always took priority. I would always make it big I thought, but I overlooked a key factor, my grades. Senior year of high school, I applied for the University of Hawaii at Hilo in hopes that they would accept

When did you decide your major in a university? Some people find their dreams when they’re kids, and for them this question is meaningless. I chose my major when I was in a senior year of high school. To tell the truth, in Japan, this is late. In Japan, students have to state a major when they apply for a university, and majors hold their own enrollment examinations. This means that high school students have to finish deciding their major while they are in high school. In order to be ready for this, teachers ask high school students their first, second and third choices of universities and majors right after starting their freshman, and then they will study for the enrollment examinations, which is the biggest purpose. What if students cannot decide these major yet? They probably choose well-known universities and interdisciplinary majors. However, most students are careless about how much the decisions mean to their lives. If they have specific plans or views of their lives, they can begin preparing for the next steps that mean they are able to be a few steps ahead of other students. More preparing has a lot of worth. Therefore, the best way to succeed in Japan is thinking about an educational decision early because of the better quality of study, the connection among majors, universities and jobs, and the correlation between majors and our personalities.