Final Words

Graduation speaker applicants offer advice, inspiration to those graduating this year

Stepping onto the turf of Bridgeforth Stadium May 10 will be a completely different experience for most seniors and especially for one in particular. The student graduation speaker for this year will be responsible for recapturing the past four years of college in a speech to be delivered to the graduating class that day, a speech that they probably will never forget.

Thirty-two students vied for the honor of student graduation speaker, but in the end, senior Stephen Biscotte received the title.

"I was definitely excited and honored to hear that I could do it," Biscotte said. "I wanted to express the sentiments of the graduating class and what I've taken from here. It's one person to represent the whole group."

The search for the speaker began in late February when senior Lyndsey Walther-Thomas, Student Government Association vice president of student affairs, sent an e-mail to all members of the graduating class, according to senior Andy Musser, who applied for the postition.

In order to attain the position, students were asked to condense their four years at JMU into a four-minute speech they had to present to a panel of judges. The guidelines for the speech also required appropriate content and a minimum applicant grade-point average of 2.0, according to Musser.

"It was exciting to see common folk get in and share their thoughts," Musser said.

All of the applicants seemed to approach preparation from a different angle. Senior Steven Clark began composing his speech with the aid of a word association game. He sat down and considered all of the words which came to mind when he thought of JMU.

"The hardest part [of writing the speech] was trying to relate to the whole audience," he said.

Clark had marshaled at previous graduation ceremonies and was inspired by the experience to audition for the role of student graduation speaker.

One of the main motivations for the 32 seniors was the opportunity to leave their mark on their own graduation, according to senior Jeffrey Cretz.

Cretz was enthusiastic about applying for the position because he could, "leave some lasting words on the graduating class."

Musser perused famous historical speeches, such as the words of Martin Luther King Jr. and John F.Kennedy, on the Internet in order to familiarize himself with speech writing for a momentous occasion.

"The world is at your fingertips. I challenge you today with this: Make your lives count. Begin to lay down your lives for each other. Our world will never look the same," Musser wrote in his speech submission.

Some, like senior Lauren Cowley and Clark, thought about everything they would miss when they left JMU.

"Wherever we go, may we always have our own rendition of Dave's at 2 a.m. on a Thursday, Mr. J's at noon on a Saturday and a newspaper that allows for some free therapy with Darts and Pats…and never again have to wait in line to use a treadmill two weeks before Spring Break," Cowley wrote, "And may we take lasting comfort in the words of Robert Browning who said, ‘The best is yet to come.'"

Clark took a similar approach in her submission, advising graduates to, "pull off at Port Republic every so often, even if just to see what is now occupying the space that once held J. Willoughby's, Shenandoah Grille, Mad Mom's, Cooter Floyd's and Northern Exposure."

Senior Jamie Mansy decided to impart a creed for life to her fellow classmates. "What is truly important in life are not the material items we posses but the life experiences we create for ourselves," she wrote.

Senior Meghann Fee approached the speech hoping to induce the graduating class to discover themselves through others.

"People spend their whole lives trying to make themselves into one complete perfect statement of who they are," she wrote. "Don't punctuate your sentence. Leave it open and allow strangers, friends and co-workers to surprise you every day with insights about yourself. So when your day finally comes, your life will end with an exclamation point."

Cretz wishes to encourage his classmates to excel in life and elicit change in their surroundings.

"Remember there are billions of people around the world who will never get this chance," he wrote in his submission. "What are your motivations? Use them to succeed and invoke change."

Others, like seniors Dianna Schwartz and Katie Taylor, remind the graduating class of their indebtedness to one another for having contributed to each other's experience at JMU.

"Together, we've influenced each other's college moments and given a piece of ourselves to our friends, our teachers and our university," Schwartz wrote.

Taylor relayed a similar message in her speech.

"I envision a snapshot of each of us in our element that together creates the image of JMU," Taylor wrote. "When you look up close into each individual picture you can see the potential for each of us to reach out in a different way."

Senior Rebekah Porter's submission challenged her classmates to forget about the real world and face their futures fearlessly.

"As my professor Dr. Warner advised our class, there is no such thing as the real word. The world doesn't get any more real than what we live in today," she wrote. "Take pride in what you have accomplished today. The wisdom and maturity that you have gained in the past four, or in some cases five, years will serve you in whatever reality you encounter next."

Senior Ryan Patmintra composed a message similar to Porter's, advising the graduating class, "wheresoever you go, go with all your heart," in the words of an old adage.

Once speeches were composed and applications submitted, Walther-Thomas and the section of the SGA involved in selecting the student graduation speaker e-mailed the applicant pool to alert them of their time slot on the official audition date, March 22, said senior Dan Gibson-Reinemer, another applicant. Unlike most application processes, however, the competition for the speaker honor would not grow fierce, Clark explained.

"You kind of wish the best for everybody," she said. "There was no animosity because you know how everybody else feels."

Walther-Thomas and the hand-selected panel of judges convened for nine hours Saturday, March 22, to face the applicants. The audition slots were 15 minutes long, but most tryouts did not take the entire time, according to Clark, who described the panel environment as "very comfortable."

"The relaxed atmosphere of Taylor room 311 and the aura of unpretentiousness projected by the judging panel eased the applicants," Clark said.

Thirty-two speeches and one day later, Walther-Thomas and SGA e-mailed the group of applicants with their final decision, thanking all the seniors for their enthusiasm toward upholding the tradition and relaying the message that Biscotte had won the position.

Although only one speaker will be known as the student graduation speaker, one thing seems clear. All the seniors who applied for the honor appear to represent a determined class that is eager for the future, yet mindful of tradition and the comforts afforded by Harrisonburg.

"We are mountain climbers and today we reached the top of the mountain," senior Emily Goodman said of her class in her submission. "Now what? I say, rest and reminisce, celebrate and enjoy the view, then pick your next feat and take off."