Graduation Speakers
S. Monroy
Andrea Martinez and Isabella Ianora
Of the six students to audition, Leadership has picked students Andrea Martinez and Isabella Ianora to speak at graduation this year.
"We were not expecting this many people [to audition]," said senior Shannon Keyes, one of the leadership students who helped pick the speakers for both graduation and reflections.
Last year was different: "The senior class had to scout for people to speak," said Samantha Coppersmith, another Leadership student who helped pick the speakers. "We were very fortunate to have a very active and involved class."
There are many factors the judge committee took into account when deciding among the speakers.
What they were looking for were "people who don't just write their speech and say it," said Coppersmith. "They write their speech and believe it."
Senior Emily Costanza, another member of the judge committee, said that the speakers should "[reflect] high school and our class," while Ms. Keyes said, "we were looking for personality in the speakers themselves."
For Andrea Martinez, auditioning was very stressful.
"It was nerve-wracking," Martinez said, "it was something I've always wanted to do... I want to make my family proud."
Martinez will be talking about the parallels between immigrating to a new country and the transitionary period of coming into and leaving secondary education.
"When they travel from their home country to a new country, they have to learn new things and incorporate themselves into the system High school students have to do the same thing," said Martinez. "The reason I wrote about immigration is because I'm an immigrant, and the topic of immigration has been very important to me."
Ianora's speech will detail the ways that students have changed over the course of their school year.
"I think it's important to look back and see how we've changed in four years," she said.
Ianora spoke at her 8th grade graduation as well.
"That was the first time I talked to a crowd that big, and so I think that gave me the confidence to try again this year," she said. "I tend to get a little terrified when I speak to crowds. I think it's more something that will push me out of my comfort zone, but I'm really excited about doing it."
Leadership also picked science teacher Suzanne Morse to speak at graduation.
"When they first asked me, I was like, 'What can I possibly say to inspire these kids?' and I thought on my own life and what I would want to hear," Morse said.
Her speech will be about the positive and negative things that happen to someone over their lifetime, and how to take the bad with the good.
"The idea is to kind of stay positive through life... there's always a silver lining." This idea "helped me in my life and guided me through tough situations."
She also warned that she'd throw some science into the speech.
Some of the people who tried out who weren't chosen to speak at graduation were given the chance to speak at senior reflections. Samantha Coppersmith, Caroline Fuller, and Jake Freels will be giving their speeches at Reflections, along with science teacher Jeff Merken.
"Everybody came with a great speech, but we had to make some cuts," Coppersmith said.
She also stressed that, whether they are speaking at graduation, reflections, or at no event, all the students that auditioned succeeded.
