Each year as LHS seniors graduate and move on to colleges across the nation, they are sent off by the words of selected students from their grade: the graduation speakers along with the class president. These students honor the four years that the class had at the school and relish in the memories that are to come.
This year’s selected speakers are seniors Ankur Rastogi and Emmalee Berger; Jordan Rule, as the senior class president, will give a welcoming speech at the beginning of the ceremony and will pass the ivy to next year’s class president.
Both of the selected speakers share a love for public speaking and each became interested in applying for the high school graduation speaker at eighth grade graduation ceremonies.
“I have always liked public speaking, I was one of the speakers at our eighth grade graduation and I’ve been in debate for four years so I really like the idea of presenting to other people, and I hopefully feel like I’ll do a good job,” shared Rastogi.
The graduation speakers who are selected each year must be qualified and try out in order to win the spot. Any senior from the graduating class has the ability to write a speech over the course of a few weeks in April. A total of 12 seniors tried out this year.
Once they have written the speech that they want to present, they turn all of their materials into secretary Sandra Kruckman in the main office. Mrs. Kruckman is responsible for the entire graduation ceremony and puts a lot of work into the process.
“It is really quite amazing what she does to pull off the ceremony as a whole,” shared Mr. Christopher Thomas, who served on the selection committee and will be helping to prepare the speakers. “She handles putting together all of the auditions and then puts together an order.”
A committee decides who the speaker will be each year. This year’s committee was made up of principal Dr. Marina Scott and Ms. Kruckman, along with student activities director Jennifer Uliks, social studies teacher Ms. Andrea Lara, athletic director Mr. Briant Kelly, literature teacher Mr. Christopher Thomas, and counselor Mrs. Kelly Angelos. During auditions, the committee listens to everyone who is interested in giving a speech. The administrators have different criteria regarding delivery, content, and the speech as a whole, but this year, they mainly based their decision on who they felt would be best for the ceremony.
“I can tell you what we struggle with so hard as a committee is picking the speeches because there is never a bad speech for anyone who tries out and the general discussion in the committee is how we are ever going to possibly choose,” shared Ms. Kruckman.
As far as requirements go, the speech cannot be too long, meaning it needs to be less than five or six minutes. Regarding content, the students are always given suggestions on what should be included in the speech, but people can do whatever they would really like to as far as the message goes.
“I think a good graduation speaker is someone who is authentic and who can in their delivery captivate their audience, but still at the same time let their own personality show through their conversational tone,” stated Mr. Thomas.
Once the speakers are chosen, Mr. Thomas works with each of the speakers in order to give them tips on their performance. He mainly focuses on delivery, but also gives advice on how to shape up the design of their speech as well.
The content of the speeches will not be revealed until the actual graduation ceremony, but it was apparent that both speakers were thrilled about this opportunity.
“I am embarrassingly excited. I am so honored to be able to speak” stated Berger.
