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Essay on Graduation Speech

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Welcome fellow graduates and honored guests to the sixtieth anniversary of commencement for Stoll Community College. For those graduating, this day marks the culmination of a period of courage, commitment, and accomplishment. For these reasons, I am greatly honored to be chosen as student speaker for this outstanding class of graduates and I hope that my words will give a measure of justice to the significant event that has brought all of you here tonight. Hopefully, we will laugh a little, perhaps cry, and give some much-deserved praise. For the class of 2012, this is our night to shine, to pat ourselves on the back, to say "Well done. Good job." And as we take center stage to receive our degrees we are also going to lift the curtain …show more content…

After retiring from special education instruction, she returned to Stoll Community College as an instructor in adult education. My grandmother, Mary, sits among you now as a member of our distinguished faculty. She is a powerful example of achievement in our time. Her name is Mildred. She was raised in the Republic of Panama with her sister and two brothers. When their mother came to America to work to provide income for her family, Mildred took on the roll as caretaker and guardian of her siblings; a roll she held for over 10 years. Like many of us, she worked very hard to pay her way through university. However, when a ruthless military dictator took control of her country, she was forced to abandon her studies due to the universities being shut down. Fear and death were all that remained. After the invasion by U.S. forces and the return of democracy to Panama, the universities reopened and she eventually earned her second bachelors degree in English. Now well on her way to a masters degree, she decided to visit her sister who was now married and living in Stoll. Mildred thought it might be a good idea to enhance her English skills by learning American slang, not realizing, of course, that this is almost impossible to learn, let alone understand, for anyone over the age of twenty. She came for one month and has been here ever since. During her visit she became a volunteer at Stoll Community College. While there, she met a

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