Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Family role in education
College graduation speech examples
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Family role in education
Hi, my name is Mary Smith, and I want to welcome you all to the County High School graduation ceremony tonight.
I came to County High School four years ago. As soon as I walked onto the campus I knew it was the right place for me. In fact if I were to describe CHS in one word it would be "family." Everyone here, students and staff, are the most understanding, supportive and encouraging group of people you could find. It is because of my "family" that I am graduating today.
My journey to this day has been filled with many challenges. I dropped out of school thinking that I did not need a high school diploma to accomplish the things I wanted in life. That was a mistake. Finding myself behind in credits, I enrolled in FAHS hoping to get back on track. The foundation for success was here. But soon after, I became pregnant and left school again. I was able to return to school because of the daycare at FAHS. I was more motivated this time around to find my dream of graduating. But my road took another unexpected turn leaving me a teen mom now to two. Once again with the help of the FAHS daycare I returned to school With the support of my "family" my dream is becoming a reality.
All of the other students here have stories of their own to tell. Stories of what brought them to FAHS, stories of what kept them here and stories of the obstacles they have had to overcome in their lives. They are about tragedy and triumph, success and failure and of will and determination to follow their dreams. It has been the dream of each and every student here tonight to graduate and that dream is finally coming true.
To my fellow graduates, I encourage you to continue to dream big. Whatever your goal is in life - dream to the next level. Believe me when I tell you that you can go farther than you think you can go. People who fail to dream do so because they cannot believe their dreams will come true. Never stop dreaming. James Dean once said, "Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today."
On behalf of my fellow graduates, I would like to extend a special thanks to the staff at FAHS. You had so much faith in all of us.
When I was in elementary school, I loved to read. I was a total nerd back then ... okay maybe I still am, but one thing has changed. Now I don't so much like reading. My favorite poet was Shel Silverstein, who wrote "Where the Sidewalk Ends." He seemed like he was a total hippie, but that's cool because I like hippies. My grandma is a recovering hippie. I like her too. Anyway, Shel Silverstein wrote about the coolest things. He wrote about magical erasers, eating whales and a boy with long hair flying away from people who were taunting him. He captured all of the things that I loved without knowing that I actually loved them. Now you may ask, how does this hippie relate to our graduation? Well, he wrote a poem entitled "Traffic Light" and this is how it goes:
Good evening. Some of you out there may not realize this but those of you who attended Suntime Middle School have been with this guy for the last seven years. I would like to ask you all, not just Suntime Middle School grads and who all else, to join me in thanking Mr. Weather for his patience and dedication to the success of our education over the years. We are the Class of 2000. The first graduating class of the new millennium. The past four years have been pretty wild. We started out as a bunch of rats in a small cage, but as time went by we learned and matured and became big rats in a new small cage, but in any case, the cage door is now opening; the handlers turning us wild things loose. As we leave "Where the Wild Things Are," home to some of the best cat fights, fist fights and food fights this side of the Cascades, I have a little surprise for all of you sitting in front of me here tonight in your caps and gowns … we ain’t seen nothing yet!
Family, friends, and educators, I would like to thank you all for your support in coming out today to commemorate the Hoover High School Class of 2015 commencement. However, your support today is not where the extent of our gratitude lies, it lies within each and every single day of hard work and motivation that you all put in for my classmates and for myself to be successful. You are the reason that we are able to walk across this stage, and I think it goes without saying that each and every one of them deserve a standing ovation.
It has been around 14 hours since I have gotten back from the Freshmen Retreat, and I happy to be able to write about the success of the trip in all parts, regarding my personal goal, what I learned about my fellow advisory peers, and realizing a bit more about myself.
As I look to graduate, I become increasingly aware that I have my entire life to look forward to. Even though I will have struggles throughout my life, I still have my well being to fall back on. When all else fails, I am and hopefully always will be self-assured that I am here, healthy and able to bring myself through the worst of circumstances.
Up until this year I had no goals. I was just in college to be in college, like all of my other friends were, but this year things changed. I have been a student at Des Moines Area Community College since 2009, but have only been part-time up until this last semester. In my last semester I have realized that education is no longer a game. It is a way for me to have a better life and benefit the lives of not only me and my future family, but the community around me. There are many people in this world that do not get a chance to go to college, but fortuitously for me I am not one of them. I am one of the chosen few that have been given a chance for a better life, but, until only recently, had not given my entire effort to school and would have probably dropped out if it wasn’t for the people in my life that cared enough about me to help me realize how important education is.
It is probably a mistake that I am standing here giving a speech for graduation. In fact it is probably a mistake that I am even graduating from this school at all -- believe me, just as most people in this class I have tested the limits of attendance, of sleeplessness, and of procrastination. At the beginning of my high schooling, I was even testing dropping out ... and if that wasn't a mistake, I don't know what was. After four years of Starr altering our minds, it seemed most fitting for me to spend my four minutes talking about mistakes. Thank goodness for them, by the way -- it is only when we truly screw up big time that we are ever stopped in our tracks -- stopped, briefly, to learn lessons of worth.
First of all, I'd like to welcome all the parents, relatives and friends, on behalf of the senior class. It has been a long, hard road to graduation and I know your presence here is greatly appreciated. My job as salutatorian is to reminisce on our past here at County High, a past that reads like a script of a soap opera.
Throughout the next several quarters, I watched my fellow students' lives and saw that none of what makes a life was over. We gathered together in support of one another when someone's kid broke their arm, family members were taken suddenly in an auto accident, divorce ended a marriage, illness prevented class attendance, babies were born and weddings went on. We were able to balance family, school and work commitments by simply juggling our days and supporting one another.
Good evening parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, and friends. I would like to thank you all for coming to this very special day. I know how proud you must be. As we have grown over the years, there are many stages we all have gone through. From learning our shapes and colors, to getting our first kiss in middle school, or how about explaining to our parents why we skipped school because the principal called home. As we remember these days, things that we've done will be with us forever. But this is only the start of our journey. The day has come where we say goodbye to the big yellow buses, assemblies, assigned seating, and attendance policies. Are you really gonna miss it? For some of us maybe not right away. But eventually we will so for us to be here it is not necessarily an achievement, but a privilege. All of us have been in school over half our lives. To graduate is one more step we've taken in our lives.
Let me begin by saying that I am very honored to be addressing the County High School Class of 2012 as students of this institution for the last time. We've spent these last four years creating some serious memories: four years of chieftain power, leaking roofs, questionable Homecoming skits, and musical principals. Four years of good teachers, bad teachers, new teachers, old teachers. Four years of youth, music, growing up and breaking free. Four rubber chickens, four yearbooks, four ASB presidents and four chubby bunnies.
No matter what problems I had during these four years I’m really glad that I had to go through this experience which taught me so many valuable lessons and helped me experience that feeling that you get by helping other people.
Good evening graduates, family and faculty. We made it! This moment is everyone’s and tonight I hope that all of us can feel as victorious as I do, for our success is your success too. Graduates, I want you to think back to your happiest moment in your journey at Montclair State University. Hold that thought close to your heart. For many of us, it will be successfully completing our first semester or securing that internship that you really wanted. For others like myself, my happiest moment happened even before I drove up Valley Road to MSU. You see, I had dreamed of that moment for the past two years. The moment where I would hold the acceptance letter in my hand.
Valedictorian Speech Good evening fellow graduates, teachers, family members, friends, and distinguished guests. It is a tremendous honor to be the valedictorian of our graduating class. My job is to somehow be the voice of the entire graduating class, and take five minutes to say a few words on behalf of all 539 of us. Like most valedictorians, writing this speech was not an easy task for me. Not because I did not have anything to say, but because I was overwhelmed by how much I wanted to share with you all on this day. Tonight, we have one common purpose, to celebrate. We are here to congratulate, to look towards what the future holds for us, to wish each other well, and to, most importantly look back on our time spent here. So, I would like to start by saying 'well done' to my fellow graduates, who have all worked hard during the past several years to reach this milestone. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to the graduating class for selecting me to speak here tonight. Ever since the news broke, many people, some who've I've never really met before, have come up to me and have wished me well. Perhaps this speech would be incomplete if I don’t say something to the teachers. On the behalf of my entire class, I would like to thank all my teachers: thank you. Thank you for teaching us, for leading us, for building us up as adults. I know that we have not given back to you the respect you deserve. I know that we have not told you how much we appreciate you taking time out of your schedules to help us. And I know that we have not said thank you for giving us a wonderful education. So, I hope that as I say thanks, you can forget our shortcomings and remember us for who we are and not from the mistakes we have made. ...
Good afternoon everyone. Friends, family, staff members, honored guests and fellow graduates. On behalf of the Grad Class of 2016, we were selected by our class to give some parting words. Today is our day. After thirteen years of knowing only these walls around us, our time here has come to an end. We are officially stepping forward into our futures. No longer united on one path, as we are now branching off on our own, taking our own paths.