Graduation Day Essay

Henry David Thoreau would have been a fine choice for graduation speaker at Loyola University Chicago. While Thoreau held somewhat-conflicting views on civil disobedience, his life philosophy would have certainly spoken to the young Millennials graduating this spring. Thoreau would have spoken about freedom, individuality, and the importance of doing the right thing. Thoreau would have been a perfect fit for a commencement speech, as they were the target audience of his book. He stated, “Perhaps…

In fall 2014, I was really excited to start school because it was my senior year at Helen Cox High School. I had been enrolled in the Patrick F. Taylor Opportunity Program for Student (TOPS) for the past four years. TOPS is a scholarship program that guarantees Louisiana students the right to a state-funded college education if they meet all academic requirements. As a child of a single parent home, TOPS was going to give me my chance at a future education and life which would be challenging…

According to a study made by The Alliance of Excellent Education, if California's male graduation rate increased by only 5 percent, the state would save up to 2.4 billion in crime costs (2013). 2.4 billion dollars would be saved just by raising the graduation rate of male students in California. Imagine increasing the graduation rate for men and women all around the nation. This would save the government billions of dollars in crime costs that would be put…

group of orthopedic surgeons for the last ten years. I absolutely love the people I work with and my job, but the dream of becoming a nurse has always been a heart wrenching ambition. I get the wonderful opportunity to be inspired by nurses every day. Nurses who, from the first time you see them interact with a patient, you know in your heart that’s what they were intended to do. A devoted nurse will be selfless by putting their patients’ needs before their very own. That brings up the…

sees things a little differently and argues that the NCES numbers are not totally accurate. He states there is a difference between graduation rates and dropout rates. Graduation rates are normally obtained by dividing the number of students receiving diplomas by the number of students who began high school four years earlier. This yields a national graduation rate of 47% amongst African American males and 78% for white males. The NCES tracks dropout rates by using the Current Population…

High school in the United States was a good experience for me in terms of education and how well I did in my classes compared with the bad grades I used to get in my home country, Peru. However, my experience as a high school student in Peru was more fun and memorable since I used to fool around a lot with teachers and classmates and never paid attention in classes. As a result, I would always get kicked out of class by teachers for distracting other students. So I did not have good grades. I…

The year was 2014. I was a senior in high school, already I had committed to go to Colorado Mesa University, I had a track scholarship and I was going to major in Geology, ultimately wanting to go into petroleum engineering. The only thing was, I didn’t want to. I did not want to go be a geologist, I wanted to travel, to see the world! As cliché as it may have been, I dropped out, I worked for a period of time and sent myself on a trip to Europe to “find myself”. Arriving back home after a few…

What television show character are you most like and why? One Tree Hill was a show that I refused to watch. I knew mom’s that were obsessed with this teen show, and that was just not something I wanted to be a part of. So when finals came around last year, I decided it was time to watch One Tree Hill. I loved it. I became invested in the show, the characters and the story line. I could not figure out what it was about the show that made me love it, that made me feel like I related to it so much…

Like any other day, my day started with a loud buzzing alarm and parents screaming at the top of their lungs. But today wasn 't like any other day in school. It was June 2, 2025, graduation day for South Miami Sr. High. Already my phone was buzzing from messages from all my closest friends except Chelsea, my best friend at the time. Knowing this wasn 't typical of her, I knew that our friendship was all going to change. That friendship taught me more about Chelsea and also with people who aren…

Constantly having to watch your back because you don’t know when he’s going to strike is stressful. One day were in the car riding and he automatically started acting like a crazed lunatic. He was hitting my younger siblings and I reacted fast. We were fighting back and forth and for a quick second I turned around to get something and he stabbed me in my…