Graduation Speech : The Path Foundation

Good afternoon fellow classmates, beloved family members, wonderful staff of Palm Beach Lakes Community High School, and dedicated Palm Beach County School Board Members!

I am an active member of my school and community. At school I feel that i've gained the respect of my peers being elected as Student Council representative for the past four years. I have also been elected the treasurer of the choir, and secretary of the band. I am part of the Ross Middle School bucket drumming group and have been casted as part of the school theatre’s annual play. After school on Wednesdays I assist Ms. Rullman in helping students with homework and enhancing study methods. I am currently participating in science olympiad and have in the past. I am also an anchor on the popular Good Morning Ross Middle School weekly news show. In addition, I have been a part of National Junior Honor Society which takes part in service projects

In class, we have discussed: writing-to-learn, rubrics and research. In this paper, I will reflect and summarize on topics discussed in class. I sense that all of these topics can have a positive affect off of the other. Thus far I have really enjoyed the topics we have discussed because they stretch so far and are opinionated topics. From my own personal experience, I do not really enjoy writing. I had teachers who made me write things like spelling words over and over. When the topic about research came up I instantly sighed because my first thought was that I was going to be assigned what to research. What fun is researching something if you don’t get to do it on something interesting? As I reflect back on my own experiences from grade school I remember using rubrics starting around 8th grade. Seeing how then, I just thought there were no use for them now I absolutely love them because it gives expectations from the teacher for the student. I think rubrics are awesome to use but if they aren’t worded just right I see failure waiting to happen.

The United States has always been known to be the “land of opportunity”. I was 12 years old when I moved to the U.S. My sister and I were excited, nervous and eager all at the same time because, Not were we going to live with our Dad who had been away from us for over 10 years, but also to live in the U.S. I knew everything for me was about to change.

How are you doing? This is Will, the tall black guy you would sometimes see in service. I'm writing to say goodbye. My project in Carson City came to an end and I've moved back to Texas. Thank you so much for making me feel at home at Hope. Your messages kept me going while I was in Reno. God used your words to truly bless me and also show me where I need to improve. Sorry I didn't get a chance to say goodbye in person, but everything happened so fast.

I would love to thank you for your time. I realized that I had went over your office hours, that is, I left 5:15 p.m. Thanks for taking the time to not only listen to my problems, but helping me to solve them. I have been having a difficult and rough transition at the Boca Raton campus. I understand that I am not alone and I am trying to make a difference as a senior student. Also, I think students should be notified of the rules and regulations on all FAU campus. I have seen students back up while parking, but I guess you are not suppose to and I did not know that. I feel so bad that I have been doing all the wrong things in Jupiter. Unfortunately, I learnt the hard way, due to the ticket displayed on my car. Again, you have been of great

When there is a lack of professors at a college or institution, many classes become over-capacitated. Some students find it very hard to completely understand what the professor is teaching because there are so many students in the class. For example, students could be disturbed by that one student always chomping on crunchy chips during the lesson, excessive gossiping from a group of students in the back of class, or maybe even by the way the teacher speaks or pronounces their words. Although an over capacitated class could be very disturbing, it is the student’s responsibility to find a way to intake all information needed to prepare for exams. There are many ways to prepare for an exam depending on how much time is spent studying, what area is used to study, and whether or not the student received the correct amount of sleep prior to the exam. The type of exam preparation that the college student uses depends on whether the student is over achieving, average, or carefree. There are also many benefits and disadvantages that come along with being an over achieving, average, or carefree student.

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.

That evening, when Edward returned home from college. He quickly ate his lunch and rushed to work as a part-timer in a Pizza Hut restaurant. He works as a waiter and sometimes he works at the front counter. On that evening, Edward was the only worker who came to work. He cleaned a mountain of dishes, he threw all the leftovers on the tables, and he moped the floor after he swept it all by himself. After finished work, he went home and took some rest. Even though, his friends invited him for a movie that night, he did not joined them. He want to, but he could not. Instead, he did his homework that night.

If someone were to ask me a couple years ago if graduate studies were in my plans, my reply would be “absolutely not!” Back then, there was not really a good reason that motivated me to continue my education after graduating with a degree in Public Health Education. The mere thought of more school exhausted me. Though my mentality seemingly changed, one thing that cannot be denied is my love for the game of basketball, which has been almost cruelly ignored until recently. The countless times trying to live without it has led to me not feeling not quite as upbeat as usual. Even when things were going right in my life, that extra bounce in my step was just not there. While my playing career did not work out the way as desired, I still get a rush from simply being around the game; and then it finally hit me. I realize I can use everything learned through my work experience and previous coursework and apply it towards a career I know I will definitely love. From this point on, I will make moves that will make me happy rather than pleasing those around me. With that being said, this is why I seek to get into the Recreation and Sports Administration program at Western Kentucky University.

As I was indisposed on the day that we wrote up our goals for the semester, due to my car accident, I did not write up my goals in class. However, I thought of some goals that I would like to fulfill in the interim period, those goals would be to get at least a “B” in all my classes, manage my time so I do not burn myself out on homework, and get enough sleep during the week. Firstly, although I would like to make it on the Dean’s List this semester, there is a very possibility that I will not make it on due to academically rough areas in Math 110 and, to a lesser extent, Astronomy 100. With that being said, I would be more than happy to achieve a “B” or better in those classes as math and science have never been my strongest subjects, and I am not worried about my other classes as I know them fairly well and am confident in my abilities to do well in them. Secondly, I would like to manage my time more effectively so that I do not get ground down mentally by the amount of homework that is sure to pile up over the course of the semester. I have found that it is much easier to split my workload up into smaller chunks and tackle those, day-by-day-, as opposed to trying to cram a lot of homework into a single day – which is mentally taxing and a fair bit annoying as well. Finally, as rest is very important – both during the course of the school semester and when school is not going on – I would like to get enough this course so that I can focus on my classes each day without

After completing this journal, I realized that my well being is reflected upon my occupations. Just a year ago, I recall how I spent majority of my time studying to get that 4.0 GPA for medical school. To obtain that goal, I did not engage in any creative or fun occupations that would make me smile. The only thing on my mind was to study from morning to midnight. That whole year, I was miserable as I failed to accomplish my goal. To make matter worse, my grandparents passed away, adding more stress. During that time, I did not know how to best respond to my situation. I thought studying hard was enough, but I did not realize others factors can prevent me from accomplishing my goals. After finishing this journal, I have realized how much I have change by engaging in meaningful occupations, sticking to new theme of meaning, and developing better habits.

Congratulations to my fellow graduates and their parents and guardians. The only way out is through and we did it. I am proudly standing here as valedictorian of the first graduating class here at Humanities III. Before I begin, I would like to offer specials thanks to the staff and faculty who have journeyed along with us and kept our heads on straight, especially those who have stuck by us for these past four years.

Friends that we make from our high school years are the ones that we will have for a lifetime. And I am glad I made some friends during the course of my high school years. Those friendships, hopefully, would travel with me until I enter college, the world of adulthood, and the very last stage of my life—death. One of those friendships, one of my treasures, is between Ryan and me. He and I first met in a math class back in freshman year. It was the first day of school, and everything—classmates, teachers, and even the classrooms—were all new to me. Sitting down and looking around, I saw some familiar faces from middle school, but, overall, I was basically a duck in a flock of chickens.

Ever since I was young I always aspired to become more than I could ever imagine. I had drive and that helped me realize my goals early on in my education. I always dreamed of college and what it would be like. With the chance I could have followed in my older siblings and drop out of highschool I pushed through it to prove to my two younger siblings that bettering yourself is possible. Not only did I graduate from high school on time but I graduated with honors. I am the recipient of the McCoy Medal of Honor for being in the top 20% of my junior class but I was also a member of Van Horn High School 's National Honor Society and to top it all off I got to walk across the stage with red cords meaning I had graduated Cum Laude (GPA: 3.5-3.7). All of these were HUGE accomplishments for my family and I.