Graduation Speech : Higher Education

What a college education means to me? It means pride, determination, and opportunity. The pride I have in knowing that even though I have had many setbacks and faced many challenges that I was able to overcome them and achieve one of my greatest accomplishments working toward a college degree. My determination allows me to wake up every day and even though it is not going to be easy to work, I will make sure I am able to study and complete all my school work. An opportunity, I am in no way ashamed that I have not completed college, but I know in today’s world this limits how far I can make it in the job market. I know that with a degree I will get closer to finding a career that I can be successful at and enjoy doing.

As a group we decided to include a “College Success” course for freshman within out First Year Experience. Instead of making the course required, we would prefer to make the class optional and offered for 2 credits. The class would be for 50 minutes per day and either Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday and available both spring and fall semesters for first-year students at High Point University. The course would be recommended to all freshman for the fall semester in order to assist in the transition to college life, but would be offered spring semester as well for students who struggled first semester with becoming acclimated to the university.

Despite the fact, that some parents don 't want their children to fail in their education, failure is something that students should be able to value and parents should consider this a time of opportunity to learn from their mistake because my parents gave me the opportunity to fail and later on in life I achieved success from my fail and my personal experience as well as sherry connects with how failure improved education. For example in her essay, “ In Praise of the F word”, she states how countless students do not have the skills they need to succeed and how diplomas for students don’t value anything. Furthermore, she in the essay it also give a personal experiences about her son and how she as a parent had to make a decision. Therefore, what happened with her son also happened my mother with me. However, I was a nine year old and my parents had to decide if I should funk the second grade or pass. As a result, this had to be a fail or a success which sherry argues that educators and parents should not treat the word Failure as taboo with students but should treat it as a learning experience (559-601) . Correspondingly, educators and parents need to understand that the word “failure” in relation to education is tolerable and it should approved in the 2015.

My Father once said to me, “Work hard for four years of college, or work hard for the rest of your life.” What he meant, was that if I pour all my effort and hard work into achieving a degree during the four years I am in college, I will most likely live comfortably the rest of my life, as opposed to not having a college degree; breaking my back every time I go to work. However, the college life has many elements that prevent it from being a piece of cake, elements consisting of society 's views of college. Attaining a higher education becomes strenuous when the outlook on college begins to be highly criticized as corrupt by society. My college experience has led me to think the exact opposite of what society believes , and I am

In this the future is dependent on the amount of education has been attended. It is important to continue in a higher education to have a successful future: earning a college degree is all about opening opportunities in life. The process of getting a college degree will prepare and help build confidence in order to become successful. In the article “Income Gap Between Young College and High School Grads Widens” by Kurtzleben, states “People with college degrees have a far easier time finding a job than those without a degree.” It is helpful to know that having a college degree will make life easier. It is entirely understandable that some people simply don 't like school; however, attending and increase the amount of education received, increase the ability to be successful. It is well known that college class takes a majority part of a daily life it could also be expensive. Although college is a significant amount of expense, that should not be the reason not to attend, the pay boost of a degree usually pays for itself and still leave some money for other expenses. In this article a man was having trouble paying for his college expenses; but he realize with the amount of money he makes it was possible, “I made pretty good progress on my debt my first year out of school, paying back almost $7,000” ("How I Paid off $34,579 in Student Loans in under 4 Years"). A college major is an important factor to consider in life; it is an excellent opportunity to start

2. Should I say goodbye then and there with a hug, see how that goes, and then maybe a kiss if I don’t get red-lighted

According to the 2015 National College Health Assessment, over 85% of college students have felt stressed or overwhelmed in the last year. As an undergraduate, I am fully aware of the pressure we, as students, feel. We are a machines, constantly trying to balance studying, our classes, working, having a social life, and preparing for our future. And we are still expected to get eight hours of sleep every night? I know first hand how this feels. I wake up early every morning, go to class, spend countless hours studying and doing homework between classes, attend more classes, come home, clean, go to work, and study some more. Every day is a work in progress of what I will become in the future. What will be my occupation? How much money will I make per year? How am I going to pay off my student loans? These are all questions college students ask themselves everyday. William Zinsser reflects on his own college experience in his article “College Pressures” and discusses why college students feel such an intense load of pressure these days.

As I did more research on going back to school, it grew very overwhelming. There are a huge number of career colleges, vocational schools that now offer bachelor 's degree programs targeted toward working adults like myself. People frequently enroll in career colleges to acquire new skills or enhance their knowledge. Career colleges offer vocational training programs, such as nursing, beauty, auto repair, electronics, and engineering. Through my research I found that increasing numbers of working professionals are enrolling in school to learn the skills necessary to earn a college degree or take their current career to the next level.

The idea of Higher Education is a crucial thread in the fabric of this nation, woven through our culture, beliefs and politics. The best of American Higher Education outstrips any others in the world and the output of American Institutions is unparalleled. To stay competitive and expand the current education horizon, different types of institutions, evolve and prioritize differently to ensure the best education quality to targeted students. However, today Higher Education is facing more challenges and critiques than at any other point in history. Indeed, when encountering the unavoidable struggle between pleasing students and following government regulations, colleges start to rouse from their academic wish-fulfillment fantasies and realize that the idea of Higher Education does not swab away the realism of this materialistic world: higher education cannot simply satisfy everyone. Three distinctive educational models, public universities, non-profit private universities and for-profit universities, demonstrate the complex dynamic among schools, government and students. Although the three educational models share different education philosophy and serve multiple objectives, they all have the same purpose in the end: to help one realize his or her own unique potential in order to manage the diversity of expectations and challenges one would face in the society.

“I always thought I would sink so I never swam”, but Peirce showed me that I wouldn't sink. My eight years at Peirce is something I will never forget. Something that I’ll think about if I’m ever down. Something that makes me realize that I can do it, and I will, because my success is up to me, and only me. Over the years I have learned such an immense amount that it’s hard to even begin. My time here left me with so much more experience and skill that if you were to tell me eight years ago how amazing and supportive everyone is to help you succeed, I wouldn’t believe you. Everyone staff member, every student, everyone wants you to do your best. We are a community of supporters, and that's the best kind of community. Together everyone has grown and grown and there is still much more to come, but I’m sure everyone one of us graduating class of 2017 will be ready for it.

In the United States, the outlook for recent college graduates seems bleak. In 2014, graduates left college with both a degree and an average of $28,950 in student loan debt (“Survey of the States” 1). In addition, over half of all millennials are having trouble saving for the future and seventy five percent were unaware of late payment charges on their credit cards (ibid). All of this builds up into the current situation in the United States, where collectively, college graduates have over one trillion dollars in debt, the second largest debt category (ibid). Now, the spending and saving of money starts at an earlier age than ever before. Students fresh out of high school are being asked to make thousand dollar investments in the

graduation ceremony. I would like to genuinely thank you all for coming out here tonight to celebrate with us our bittersweet moments of graduation. I would like to acknowledge and express my gratitude to my fellow peers and grade 8 teachers for choosing me to be your valedictorian and spokesperson for tonight. It is such a great honour to be valedictorian because you all trust me enough to summarise some of the most memorable years of our lives. This night is an extremely special night for us. We will speak about our past, present and future. I think I can speak for all of us when I say we are at least going to miss one person in our grade. The bright side though is that we have grown together and the memories with this great community will always last. Plus, we will get to experience so much more in high school. New friends, teachers, subjects, challenges and memories. We should take advantage of our knowledge and expand on it to get the best high school experience. So really, we should be happy that we have a good ceiling for our base in Grade 9 as Mr Grandsoult says. Let’s start off with our firsts.

Higher education is important to me and probably many other people because it gives a person new dream, outlooks, greater job opportunities, and most importantly, it is self-improvement. Going to college takes someone on a journey; a journey of finding one 's self, learning responsibilities, and finding the inspiration deep inside that says, "no matter what comes my way I will fight, I 'll fight to the end because this is important to me". I respect and hold the following quote in my heart to help me on my never-ending journey; "Life should not only be lived, it should be celebrated. Those who only live don 't live in reality only those who celebrate live. And, each moment has to become a celebration." (Osho, 1984, p. 47) I try to make every moment a celebration so I can look back and see where I started to where I am at now. I try to take on challenges in life that I have never done before, e.g. writing in APA format and Citing. College helps me take these new challenges head on, so I can stay on the right path in life.

In order for higher education to continue to look attractive to incoming students, it must improve with the current trends of the world. Higher education is changing daily due to the demand of improvements from the student body. A school must have the newest and best opportunities for their students in order to keep the doors open. The following paper will take a closer look at the similarities and differences in technology, safety, and opportunities and challenges faced by today’s students in student affairs.

My educational experience is just now beginning as of now I am taking an English class also over summer I took an online academic skills class. Although online classes don’t do college justice you don’t really get the full college experience. As of now I am just focusing on my general education then eventually I hope to attend an RN program. So as of my educational experience this far would be high school and as Dweck author of Brainology would say I had a fixed mindset during high school even during grade school. Fixed mindsets care so much about how smart they will appear that they will reject learning opportunities. Which is exactly what I did during high school. Always thought as long as I was passing why try harder to get a better grade. Even if getting a better grade wouldn’t necessarily be hard.