Class of 2016 Chooses Graduation Speakers

Reflecting on the last four years of high school can be easy for some, and tough for others. Students from the Class of 2016 can all recall long nights of studying, moments of many tears and laughs, busy work that teachers made up, the time they took salt out of school, the time that the power went out, and all days that they just wanted to sleep. But the class can all agree that as a group the trials and tribulations were all worth the diploma at the end.

During academic lab, students from the class gathered together to listen to auditions where speakers got up and spoke their written speeches. Then, with paper and pencil in hand, students voted on what speakers they wanted to hear for graduation.

All different individuals spoke, but seniors Elizabeth Berson, Joey Goldman, and the “trio,” Jada Middleton, Arianna Varner, and MacKenzie Peebles, were all picked to speak.

All of the different speeches had different approaches and themes, but all of them spoke to the class.

“I was thinking of how we would all look back on high school as the years went by. This ultimately caused me to think of the question of “Where did you go to high school?” and then everything just developed from there” said senior Joey Goldman, who has been a part of student council and plans to attend Truman State University this fall.

Goldman reflected on the class’s experience going to North each year during the fall. And these reflections allowed him to think about how these experiences have affected the class for the better.

“I simply wanted to have the chance to represent the experiences and beliefs of our class. I tried to make sure every endeavor, whether it be a club or just the stress of getting through finals, had an impact or place in the speech. I wanted it to not be my “PNH experience” but be representative of the “PNH experience” of each member of our class,” said Goldman.

“There wasn’t any representation but white people for graduation, and I didn’t feel that it reflected the diversity in our class to just have white speakers” said Arianna Varner, who is planning to attend either SCAD and Hampton University.

When asked about her high school experience, Middleton said, “It’s a bittersweet feeling, because I’m going to miss the high school experience but being able to make new friends in college and being able to have a second chance is exciting,” said Middleton, who is planning on going to Hampton University.

Doing a trio for a graduation speech is not typically traditional, but when asked about why they did it Middleton said:

“Because when Arianna and  MacKenzie did the Black History month performance, the spoken word poem that they did involved three people. And the way it was said, stood out, and it was powerful. So I felt like for the graduation speech, it would be different to go against tradition as well as powerful,” said Middleton.

The speech was impressively written in one night, and all of the three each wrote a chunk of the speech.  

Each speaker worked hard to represent their class, and all wanted to impact the school one last time.

by Gabrielle Redfield, assistant editor-in-chief