Graduation Speech : School Behind Me

Throughout my high school career, I have been involved in different professional societies such as the National Society of High School Scholars, Mu Alpha Theta (Math honors society), and Business Professionals of America. My involvement in these societies has made me knowledgeable in the logistics of how to run the society, and have taught me valuable skills such as leadership and collaboration. For logistics, I can help organize events such as fundraising activities or philanthropic events as I am currently on the social committee for Business Professionals of America, which is in charge of organizing social events for my chapter. As an elected member for the social committee, my chapter has shown faith in me for my leadership skills and collaboration skills. Overall, I feel like I can contribute a lot of my skills and knowledge to UIC honors college.

Over the past two years (2014-2016) I have participated in the National Junior Honors Society. As a member, I commit to completing community service and to learning among my peers in order to develop into a superior leader. I have taken part in activities such as fundraisers, team building activities, and several forms of community services such as working in a soup kitchen, daycares and organizing social events. Recently, I volunteered for a week as a vendor at a temple in Tacoma, raising money for the establishment during the Cambodian New Year festival.

Nowadays, teenagers and young adults are graduating high school and college and are unable to find jobs. A lot of them lack the basic skills needed to survive during adulthood. Institutions exist mainly to educate people on what they need to maintain a somewhat decent lifestyle. Students have been forced to take classes on a variety of subjects throughout high school, most of which have nothing to do with what they need to prepare them for life after education. Even in college, a majority of students do not know what career field they would like to enter, so when they graduate it is hard for them to get a job anywhere. Institutions are not arming students with the proper information needed to excel after education. So, new classes should be created and required for students to pass before graduating. They will be based on basic skills such as money management, customer service skills, and credit understanding.

Winner of the Alpha Omega Contest is the highest honor that can a student at Joliet West High School can receive. To win this award, to me, would be a realization of all the hard work I have put in over the last four years. The goal of my efforts was not to build a strong resume for college applications or even for the Alpha Omega contest, but to challenge myself to grow as an individual, and to serve my community. Joining clubs and sports because they interested me, rather than in an attempt to have something else to write on applications in the future, is a strategy that helped me to excel in these endeavors. My passion for community service was cultivated in Students of Service (SOS), when I joined as a sophomore. However because I of my dedication and leadership ability, I was awarded the position of Vice-President the following year, and those same traits have resulted in me being awarded my current position of President.

High school ended, as well as summer. I was on the plane ride back from vacation to start college. I was in the tight and rigid economy section, while my sister, my father’s only princess, was enjoying herself in the luxury of business class. But that wasn’t the issue. I can’t say that I was fueled with excitement starting this new chapter in my life. I mean why would I be, I was on the honor role all of high school, took Ap’s, captain of all sports, manager, president of the student athletic council, I was even an assistant to the principle for large school events, and yet I couldn’t get into the school that I was most interested in, the Grove School of Engineering.

Returning to school, whether it is in a traditional classroom, or online is a great place to begin my story. We all know that acquiring an education can be a scary experience, especially if you are approaching 50 years old. Therefore, when I made the decision to return to school, I knew it might be the hardest decision that I would ever make. Even if school proves to be challenging, it is because I lacked many key technology skills, or school could offer new opportunities to help me improve these skills. This meant I needed to face my fears, so that I could realize my dreams.

High School graduation can be an exciting time in a student’s life. It is a time in their lives where they begin to experience the kind of freedom that comes along with growing up. This freedom allows students to choose the type of college or University they would like to attend. It is necessary that they understand how responsible they need to be with the freedom that is being offered to them. When choosing what college or university to attend it may be tempting to want to go to a school that is known more for the party scene however, it is important to keep in mind that to have a bright future, going to a party school may not be what is best for them today. When looking into a colleges or universities it is imperative to ask oneself three questions, are the students attending the school learning anything; what is the failure rate of the school they are looking into; and what is the schools average cost of tuition.

First I want to thank you for taking your time out to read my appeal. As you can tell I have been struggling Fall and Spring of 2014-15 school year to keep my grades up. The grades that I received do not reflect my potential at all. I came into this school from high school with a 3.1 grade point average and it has dropped tremendously. Some of the issues I have encountered starting the end of my senior year are still occurring and has had a huge impact on my grades this school year.

Hello and Welcome and Thank you for joining me in celebrating my graduation. This has been the milestone that many of us have been looking forward to, but first I would like to say congratulations to all students of the Class Of 2015! We are the last class that can be held on a hand. If you haven 't noticed, I am referring to the 5. I attended Bishop McDevitt High School. Now I remember when I was in 7th and 8th grade, I was not fond of going to high school. I pictured highschool as this big place where I’d seem to be so small. I did not think that I would fit in. That could have ruined my high school journey. If you do not have a open mind, you will never get anywhere in life. That is almost what happened. I was open to people. Now that may have backfired on some occasions. In highschool you win some and you lose some. You will not always walk out with the same person you walked in with. Luckily I have. In 6th Grade I met Brianna. We instantly clicked when she first got on my cheese bus. My first thought was, who is this little skinny girl, but it turned out that the little skinny girl would eventually become my best friend. Never had a dull moment or argument. Never could think of us having a problem. She has been there for me, even when I was wrong on things. If it wasn 't for Brianna, my high school journey would have been rough. So I’m here to say thank you. Thank You for being you and being a good friend. If you haven’t noticed,that is why I am up here for the Thank

High School graduation can be an exciting time in a student’s life. It is a time when they

In relation to the semester ending I am feeling great about it due to the fact it has been a great semester, and I have done my best. With this being my first semester of college, I am proud of myself for the way it is ending. Now that I have had the chance to experience what college is, I know what it is I need to do to have an even better outcome this following semester. It was very long weeks of waking up early and working hard but I did it. So I am very satisfied with the way this semester is ending.

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).

I am forty-seven and had fulfilled many of the dreams that I had as a child. I was in the military, fireman, and a police officer. I had gone to college after graduating high school following in the footsteps of my father. My father said that if I could not find a job after receiving my bachelor’s degree that he would continue to pay for my education until I received my masters. Although after two semesters I dropped out because I felt that I could make more money than continuing in school. At some point, I did over time make more money than someone who had a bachelor’s degree that worked under my father at General Electric. I married my first wife and had three children. We had our ups and downs over the entire time of our marriage and after ten years we divorced. I received full custody of the children and started to plan my future for me and them. Then out of nowhere the phone rings and it was Annabell on the other end. We hadn’t spoken to each other in two years. We started dating and not long after were engaged to be married.

When I was in sixth grade, my school had no sports, clubs, or electives. All we did was go to class, go to lunch, and go home. This routine was boring to many of the middle schoolers who were looking for ways to exert their energy. Eventually no one was looking forward to school and we all just wanted to go home, creating a lack of focus in class that affected all of our grades. If we had a basketball team or a music class, many of the students would have been excited to come to class and had motivation to do better. One day my school started a basketball team and all the students were excited; the sign up list quickly filled up with kids who thought they were the next Kobe or Lebron. After a couple practices we had our first game. Even though we lost everyone was happy because they were having fun. The school ended the team after one game because they said they could not afford it anymore. Students were sad and really disappointed that they could not have teams like other schools in the area. This problem really affected their motivation and grades. If schools focused more on funding for activities such as those I believe it will reflect on their performances. When students are more engaged they do better in class and are better motivated. Extracurricular activities really keeps students involved in school.

Throughout my college life at the University of Wyoming I joined and actively participated in several student organizations such as Beta Alpha Psi, Alpha Kappa Psi, Central Asian Student Organization, and Student Alumni Association which helped me to develop leadership skills, faith and value. At first studying was hard for me but I was able to