Speech Valedictory Essay

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Valedictorian Speech 2009 Burnley Graduation Jenny Bear Professor Rick Roush, School Dean, Professor Nigel Stork, Head of Department, Professor Snow Barlow, Occasional Speaker. Members of staff past and present, Guests, Families and friends, Fellow graduates. Had I known in 2005 that I might be standing here today as your valedictorian, I may have been tempted not to try so hard! Stage fright notwithstanding, I am greatly honoured by this privilege and I hope that I can do the moment justice. Although not commonly recommended as a search engine for which to look for high impact, peer-reviewed, scientific information, Google has been an invaluable resource to all of us when it comes to locating images, quotes, facts and other information with which to adorn our assignments. It was only natural, then, that I turned to Google for advice on how to write a valedictory speech. There I found all manner of information. I found, for example, that one could purchase a ready-made valediction for as little as 19 dollars 99 US: all one needed to do was to change a few names here and there. Tempting though this was, I continued my search to find that, in 2006 at the Gallatin High School near Nashville, Tennessee, the valedictorian didn’t get to give the speech. Instead, the honour was given to the President of the Student Association who had been delivering the valediction for the past 30 years. Not surprisingly, the microphone was snatched from him. So you know what to do if I rattle on for too long! I also found some advice about what not to do. For instance, the valedictorian is strongly urged not to recite in full the Dr Seuss poem entitled ‘Oh, you’ll go far’. This advice is also applied to the singing of the Rodgers and Hammerstein hit ‘So Long, Farewell, Auf Weidersehen, Goodbye’ from the Sound of Music – à la Professor Cousens’ Invasions Class of 2008. For us, the singing

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