This content is a collection of speeches from the Plano West Senior High School Class of 2020 graduation ceremony, acknowledging the unique challenges of their final year due to a school closure and emphasizing resilience, the importance of continuous learning, and the pursuit of meaningful dreams.
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[music]
♪ Oh say can you see by the dawn's early light ♪
♪ What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming ♪
♪ Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight ♪
♪ O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? ♪
♪ And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air ♪
♪ Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there ♪
♪ Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪
♪ O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave ♪♪
Greetings. It is my privilege to welcome you
to the Plano West Senior High School Class of 2020
graduation ceremony. I am Janis Williams and I have the honor of serving as the
Principal of the Wolf Pack. Class of 2020, even though your senior
year didn't end the way we hoped it would or imagined it would
I want to encourage you to focus on all of the happy memories you have made over
the past 13 years rather than allowing them to be
overshadowed by the school closure after spring break.
I know it is difficult to shift your focus
from all that you lost or may have missed out on
but please know that your resilience and perseverance
showed the world that learning doesn't end even when school buildings close.
Individually and collectively you overcame obstacles that no other class
in the history of Plano ISD has ever faced. As you know, we talk about
leaving your mark at Plano West but the show of support you had from the
Blue Nation during your drive down memory lane
clearly shows that you began leaving your mark
from the very first step, starting with kindergarten.
I must admit though that just as I encourage you to focus on
all you've accomplished and gained over the past 13 years
rather than the time we lost together, I too
find myself wishing and hoping for more time
with each of you. While I only had the privilege of serving as your principal
for two years these were two very special years for me
and I personally will always remember this class.
I became principal of the Wolf Pack the same year you began
Plano West so you are my first graduating class that I had the pleasure
of being with for two years. I've learned so much from the Wolf Pack
and one of the many lessons I've learned is that we are a strong pack of wolves
and we always stick together. Knowing this
assures me that this is not goodbye but simply
until next time.
Hi, my name is Shyam Chandra and I am your Vice President of Student Congress.
Greetings to Plano West families, friends, faculty and my fellow class of
2020. Although we cannot physically be here
together the spirit of nostalgia, unity and motivation for the future
brings us together like never before. Our generation is faced with
unprecedented challenges; challenges that our Plano West
education has equipped us to tackle. We are here to celebrate the awareness
and knowledge we have gained in these last 13 years
as we move forward into our various paths of life ready for anything that
comes our way. From the unforgettable memories of our
high school experience to all the lessons our hard-working
teachers taught us, we the class of 2020 have made it.
My name is Maxwell Jiang your Class of 2020 Valedictorian.
Today you and I are here because we've finished our first 13 years of education.
Take a moment to congratulate yourself again because this is no small feat.
Now some of us will continue our schooling longer than
others but whatever you do it's perfectly fine
because education is not about schooling. Now don't get me wrong, school is great.
School provides structure, resources, mentors and peers but it's not
the end-all be-all. Education is a mindset.
It doesn't matter how many years of schooling you get if you don't put in
the right energy and likewise when you finish school you
can and should keep learning. All right, so what is the education
mindset? First, humility; you need to convince
yourself that you don't yet know enough. Be real
with yourself. Celebrate your victories but don't let
that get to your ego and close your mind to further growth.
Second, perseverance; you've probably heard some
version of this a million times, "When the going gets tough, the tough get
going". Well, perseverance helps but it's not the
whole story. Shakespeare didn't grit his teeth and
write great literature the same way a diligent student works on
homework. The most important factor is passion. Now,
I hesitate to say passion because the word gets thrown around a lot
and it tends to hide more specific motivations for getting things done.
Sure, you might be really curious about some subject you might want to solve a
problem in the world around you, you might want
mental stimulation but you also might want the attention
that comes with doing something bold or to delight at having knowledge that
others don't. You might just want to be better than
your peers at what you do. Some of these motivations seem less than
noble but after all it's just human nature to
feel competitive sometimes. Don't let those feelings turn
destructive but allow them to drive you to keep learning. Tap into
that desire. So what does the education mindset look
like in practice? Here's something you can do, pick a fun
personal project to work on. It doesn't have to be big, it doesn't
even have to be related to your career plans. It could be
learning to code or learning how to draw the human face,
committing to a workout routine, opening an e-commerce business.
Whatever it might be, the great thing about personal projects
is that it's learning in its purest form. You
have complete control over how to proceed and plus
as young adults we have little to nothing at stake with these exploratory
personal projects. Then imagine doing that for years. One
project takes you to the next. You'll find great books and resources,
you'll meet smart and motivated people like you.
If your self-learning fuses with your work you'll have that added expertise
you'll need to innovate in your field and
potentially change the world. If it remains a hobby, totally fine;
you'll broaden your experience and perspective all the same.
I would go so far as to say that your ambition to learn
is what keeps life interesting.
All right, so you'll notice that none of what I said
involves getting x degree from y institution;
so let me reiterate, ultimately you are responsible for your own education
so take the initiative and make learning a lifestyle.
Thank you and good luck.
Hello everyone and welcome to online graduation. I'm Molly Whalen, your Student Congress
President and I'm honored to be speaking at this great occasion
with the task of telling you how to follow your dreams.
Something I'm obviously qualified to do as we all know
wisdom comes with youth. As an 18 year old, I can attest
and my mom will likely not challenge me that there is a lot
I don't know. So much that we don't know as 18 year olds
right now. We don't know our dreams at 18, at least not entirely and at least not
all of us. The half of us who do think we know our
dreams will likely change those about 100 times in the next 10 years.
So in this speech about following your dreams
I'm not going to focus so much on the following advice for which can be
distilled down into "just do it". No, I'm going to focus on
the dreams themselves. How we pick a worthwhile dream. Something
worth following. So start with those who already have an
inkling of what they want to do. We need to make sure that we are not
confusing a dream with a goal. Lots of us want to have high paying jobs
and nice houses one day but that, in and of itself, is not a dream.
Why you want that nice house and that nice
salary is the dream. Is it to provide for your
family or to give your children opportunities that you yourself didn't
have? To make sure you are following your true dream you
need to identify the why behind what you want to do.
Then you can make sure to follow your dreams more accurately
and avoid the red herrings life will throw at you.
In the other boat, those of us who have no idea how to begin picking a dream,
a great place to start is to consider a dream
as your legacy; the way we hope to remake the world
while we are all still here. I would argue that the best dreams,
the most worthwhile dreams, aren't about us at all.
Langston Hughes, the great poet who taught us what happens to a dream
deferred, also shared his dream. He wrote, "I dream a
world where man, no other man will scorn. Where love will
bless the earth and peace its path adorn". This dream is
beautiful; it's surely worthwhile but it's not
unique. It's not Langston Hughes' alone. It
represents the collective dream of so many who have
been born into conflict, have seen or faced oppression, injustice
and hatred and though there are thousands of places
to begin when picking your dream I think Langston Hughes' description is
the most worthwhile place to start. Because to quote him one final time, "I am
so tired of waiting, aren't you? For the world to become good
and beautiful and kind". Thank you.
Good day, Wolf Pack. I'm Sam Starr and I've had the honor and privilege of
serving as your Senior Class President this year.
And what a year it's been. I learned last week
that the topic of my graduation speech was spirit
and unity. Ordinarily it may be difficult to create a speech
focusing on these two amorphous words but not today, not this year.
Not an age where we are afraid to go outside and experience the things we
have always taken for granted. Not in a time where we are told not to
give each other high fives, handshakes or hugs. We have even been
told we can't do these things to celebrate
this event, our graduation, the most important day of our lives but
in the face of the corona pandemic that created these barriers to human
interaction we saw unity at its finest. We saw companies modify
machinery to make masks and ventilators. We saw
doctors and nurses put themselves in harm's way to save
lives and we even saw politicians surprisingly band together to approve
legislation that helped millions of people.
We seemingly became one, united and we should be proud of where we've
come and we should be proud that we made it through a difficult senior year with
grace. That said the unity that was so amazing
during the fight against the virus crumbled before our very own eyes two
weeks ago. Our country is hurting. It's hurting
badly and the pain is clear. There's much to be
fixed in this world and we're going to have to join together
and take immense strides to continue the fight
to make this a better place and we need to start now.
If there's one thing to take away from my speech it's a plea to everyone
listening to treat each other with kindness,
decency and respect and that leads me to spirit. This
coronavirus has taken so much from so many.
Although it pales in comparison to what many lost,
we too as a Wolf Pack lost many things that were important to us.
We lost our prom we lost extracurricular events,
sports games, dance competitions and so many opportunities to showcase the
amazing talents that each of us developed and worked so
hard on over the past 12 years. We even lost the opportunity to
goof off in class and to prank our friends in the halls.
This virus tried to rob us of our friendship
and defeat our spirit but it didn't succeed.
We Zoomed, played Call of Duty with our friends online
and Facetimed to get through it. We got together
and socially distanced. This virus wanted to take
everything it could from us but it didn't. It couldn't.
We wouldn't let it and that's spirit. It's our spirit.
It's Wolf Pack spirit. A spirit that is so amazing that it got us through this
crazy, difficult time. And through all of this adversity we've
grown. We've become resilient. We've become
strong and we're going out as a Wolf Pack
united, ready to take on the world. On behalf of the class I would like to
thank all of our faculty and staff for standing with us. You've always had
our backs and I thank each of you for allowing me
to serve as your senior class president this year.
Let's go and make a positive difference in the world. Let's go Wolf Pack.
Hello my name is Derek Qin and I am proud to be your Class of 2020
Salutatorian. Congratulations to all of our graduates.
It feels like summer break might have started two months ago
but there's still a little bit of formality before we are finally free of
high school. Our high school story may not have ended
the way we expected but life is still a choose your own
adventure novel and we still have a long way to go.
Just for a moment, forget the past few months of Zoom high school
and our diploma in Google classroom. For now let's just look back at the times we
have enjoyed at school. There are so many little things to
remember like the conversations you had with your friends
in the hallways during passing period walks or riding in a friend's car on the
way to off-campus lunch; remember the events you had here whether
they were performances you had on stage or intense matches you played on the
field or on the court. Remember the things that motivated and
drove you and hold on to them as you step into the future.
It may not seem like our lives will ever return to exactly how
we remember but when we get to some semblance of normalcy
remember those things that you cherished the most about your time at school.
If sitting alone at home has taught me anything it is that life after school is
full of time and choices. Looking back at the 13 years
since you first set foot in kindergarten you may cringe at your past mistakes
or smile at your successes but those 13 years were all one thing,
school time. Our mornings were dictated by the bell
and our leisure time only started after 4:15.
Well none of that is there anymore. 5 a.m. could be the time you wake up
or it could be the time you go to bed. Lunch could be at 1 p.m.
or that could be your breakfast. No matter what you choose to do with your
time know that the choice from now on is
yours. Finally, I want to thank the dedicated teachers
and staff of Plano West and all the schools that supported our
graduating class. Not only did you have to deal with us as uncontrollable
five-year-old kindergarten students and teenagers going through puberty but
even during a global pandemic you are here to support us.
Not only did you do an amazing job guiding us and inspiring us at school
but also adapting to the extraordinary circumstances that we find ourselves in
right now. Wherever you're watching this from, hopefully with your cap
at hand, please join me in the traditional turning of the tassel.
As this tassel moves from one side to the other it symbolizes our transition
to fully fledged high school graduates; ready for whatever the world throws at
us. Thank you.
Hello, my name is Elaine Yuan and I am the Student Congress Secretary.
Congratulations, Wolf Pack. We have officially made it. Today we get to
celebrate the many accomplishments we have made throughout these four years.
Although the road to our graduation has been so difficult and so different from
previous seniors it has truly shown the strength and the
perseverance each and every one of us have within us.
On behalf of the senior class I would like to say thank you
to everyone who has helped us, our friends, families
and the amazing Plano ISD staff who has helped us every step.
From the Class of 2020, thank you all for shaping us to become the students and
people we are today. Now for the last time, Go Wolf Pack!
[music]
["Pomp and Circumstance" plays]
Congratulations again to the Class of 2020.
It has been my honor to serve as your principal and leader of the Wolf Pack.
Watching this class overcome so many obstacles
and accomplish what no other class has done
and accomplished it with such grace, creativity
and perseverance gives me hope. Hope for a safer tomorrow.
Hope for a healthier tomorrow and hope for a kinder tomorrow. Even though you
have graduated you will always be a member of the Plano
West Wolf Pack. As was written on the back of your
school t-shirt this year, remember to always respect the Pack and
that starts by respecting yourself and always remembering you matter.
Respect the Pack also means respecting your fellow Wolf Pack, past, present
and future. And finally it means earning the respect of others through
your actions and by leading with pride.
You found your place in the Pack, now it's your time to find your place in the world.
[alma mater playing]
[music]
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