Thank you, Jonas for your kind introduction. Our honorable mayor, Priscilla R.

Justimbaste, our
energetic supervisor, Bienvenido P. Canete, our barangay captain, Hon. Alfredo Garcela, Sr.,
principal of

Jabong

Elementary School

, Mr. Santiago Remandaban, principal of Guingauan Elementary School and Sphere, Mr. Lucas
Bibar, head teacher of San Pablo Elementray School and Sphere, Mrs. Myrna Canete, teacher-in-
charge of Aslum Elementray School, Mrs. Eleonor Balasanos, teacher-in-charge of Mercaduhay
Elementray School, Mrs. Gloria Diaz, parents, visitors, and most importantly, graduates of Class
2007, warm greetings to each and everyone of you.

It is my honor to speak before you today with a message of hope and encouragement for every
one of us here. When I was informed that I will be the one to share the graduation message this
year, I did not hesitate to accept the invitation for two reasons: First, as a graduate of this school,
it is both my desire and honor to impart what I have learned in this life. I am so proud of this
institution. My acceptance is one way of showing my gratitude. Secondly, I want to encourage
our young graduate today to pursue their dreams and ambitions in life.

The theme for this year’s graduation exercises “Student Empowerment towards Greater
Productivity” (Lakas ng Kabataan Tungo sa Maunlad na Kinabukasan) is very timely because
there is an increasing number of students enrolling today in schools yet most of them were not
productive as we should expect. Why? It is because our knowledge about student empowerment
is limited and is not effectively applied. Student empowerment means enabling the students to
pursue social and achievement goals.

Poverty has been the major reason why many students today could not finish their schooling.
You have always heard the saying “Poverty is not a hindrance to success” from different people.
However, it is my opinion that the opposite is what the reality is: poverty is indeed a hindrance to
success. In my 21 years of existence in this world, I have realized that poverty will cripple you
until you have nothing to left in yourself. This is not discourage you, our dear graduates and
parents, but I just want to emphasize here the reality of life. When we truly begin to understand
that poverty, like other things and circumstances, such as physical disabilities, hinder our
progress, we will overcome these obstacles. Remember that an empty stomach will not empower
students. I can tell you this because I have experienced it. Let me give you a personal experience
so that you will see a clearer of what I’m trying to say. When I was in college, there were several
times that I missed my classes simply because of these two reasons: I didn’t have money for
tricycle fare from my boarding house to UP and I was too hungry to bother attending my classes.
Where is empowerment in this setting? None! I’ve gone through a lot of difficulties in college,
but I never give up. I borrowed money from my friends and classmates. So parents, wag niyong
gugutumin ang mga anak niyo if you want them to graduate. To our graduates of Class 2007, do
not loose hope. Never give up! Do not be intimidated by the poverty of life. Develop positive
characteristics within yourself for these will be your swords to combat any obstacles that will
come on your way. Be empowered.
With regard to the future, this is what I say to you: dream big. Dreams help you to do great
things in life. Dreams will help you make the impossible things possible, to set direction in your
lives, and to make changes for the better; even better, change the world and make it better. To
dream big allows great inventions and discoveries to be made. To dream big puts energy and
spark into each day. To dream big makes you continue to seek for excellence in everything you
do. You have seen and experienced excellence time and time again these past six years so I hope
that the desire be embedded deeply within your hearts.

Continue to learn. A school is not the only place where learning occurs nor is academic learning
the only kind. Always be curious, be open to the ideas of others whose interests differ from what
you believe. Learn something new each day. By doing so, you will develop new passions and
you will be an interesting person. I don’t want you to be dull.

Take responsibility for your successes and your failures. Enjoy the former, and learn more from
the latter. If other people helped you to be successful, acknowledge and thank them; if others
were involved in disappointment, encourage them to work with you to be successful next time.

Foster good relationships. They will help you with those big dreams. They will help you to keep
real. They will help you to maintain perspective in good and difficult times. Stay connected with
people as you go through to high school, college, work, and beyond. Your lives will be richer
and more enjoyable as a result. Test me in this. Be involved in your community in some way.

To the parents and teachers, help your children and students develop their potentials. They need
you. They are in the stage of growing up. Help them realize their goals just as you helped me
when I was still your student. I am indebted to all of you for inculcating in my mind the
importance of education.

And lastly, don’t forget to pray and seek God. Make Him the center of your life.

Thank you so much!

To the Graduates

Its is an honor and joy with your happiness on this very special occasion - your
graduation day.

Today is not the end of your education for you, but the beginning of another stage,
different from your experiences during the four years of secondary schooling.
However, I am confident that you have been equipped by your mentors, parents
and guardians with proper and appropriate knowledge and skills to meet the
challenges and obstacles of whatever you decide to pursue.
Congratulations! You deserved this accolade as you survived the trials which might
have altered your studies. I urge you therefore to continue your studies to become
productive and useful citizens of our country.

Good luck and God bless!

Posts tagged “valedictory address”

My Contribution To The Future

My eldest sister, Maritez, called me the previous day asking me to write a valedictory address for
her second child, Gigi, who will be graduating Valedictorian from grade school. It was such
a great moment for me. Suddenly I was a proud uncle, I believe she feels double the joy and
pride I felt. Hearing my nephews’ and nieces’ accomplishments and achievements are always
inspiring. It feels like I’m showered with so much positive energies, and I feel a certain feeling
of high every time.

And then, I begun the composition of the speech in my mind that brought me back to the sweet
memories of my early education from elementary days. It all became fresh again. All the
elements came back, and I was there when it happened and the speech I wrote should have been
the message I told my classmates back then, only I was not the valedictorian.

My Education: My Contribution To The Future

A Valedictory Address : Angelie Jamora Escrupulo

I arrive today to this moment, standing facing a new frontier. Before this moment pass me by, let
me take each detail, each piece of memories, each body of thoughts, the knowledge, the wisdom,
the important life’s lessons, all the gifts and blessings that this moment is giving me so I could
take them with me to my travel to the future.

My dear classmates, are you taking the memories like me?

Do you still remember the first time we stepped to the grounds of this school, the Elementary
School we will forever carry wherever the future takes us from here. Did you keep our
shared laughters? The laughter forever sweet in our memories. Engrave them in your hearts, they
are the laughter so pure we could always go back whenever we face the bitter taste of life that we
are sure to stumble upon as we face the consequences of growing. Value the friendship we built
here, they hold the purest elements of camaraderie and partnership that we need as we befriend
the world.

Feel the comfort of the chairs where you are seated now, the floor where your feet are rested,
breath the air, the scent of our dear school ~

If you could hold the hands of our classmates beside you, feel that gentle yet strong grip . . . .

(Note : Invite everybody at this point to hold hands and please allow some time for seatmates to
enjoy the moment)

The memory of their grips will remind us that we will be forever safe wherever our futures
would take us when we leave this grounds and get out of the gates of this campus that will
forever hold the moments when we took our baby steps taking in the knowledge that helped form
the young muscles of our minds so we would be ready.

Listen to the sounds of triumph that we all hear at this moment.

Capture all the elements that we could possibly get from here -

The scents of our notepads and erasers, of our bags, of the pencils and scented pens, when we
were just learning to form the first letters, write our first words and draw our first flowers.

The many rains that showered us in our way to school and back home, and its sound as the
rainfalls hit the roof of our classroom when we were just learning to count and pronounce our
ABC’s

The sunlights that lit our faces, the sunshine that’s forever bright in our memories, and will
forever remind us of the first exercise and dance steps we learn from our PE.

The feel of our desk, the colors of our classroom, the taste of the hundred snacks we shared.

Memorize the faces that helped pave the way for us to arrive to this victory, that made our first
triumphs possible :
Our parents ~ God’s angels that built our homes and sent us to school.

Our families that supported us so we learn the basic lessons of how it is to stand and to take steps
in our first walk in our journeys with life.

Our classmates and friends, who made us feel for the first time that we belong outside our homes
in the safety of their company.

Our dear Teachers, our second parents in school, who fed us with all the knowledge every step of
the way, from kindergarten, to grade one, to grade six, and now that this journey is about to end,
as we are about to take a leap to next stage. We fear not because we are ready, they prepared us
for this, to face the many battles we will face as we step to the roads to our future. Remember
their voices that equipped us with the weapons and armour, these are the voices that will
remind us of the power of knowledge they ingrained our young minds.

Remember our dear Principal, who helped us build our backbones in education, wherever the
paths of the academe will take us, we would always trace back our beginnings from here. We
should always be grateful to our principal for designing and sending us the most basic
and complete, yet non-complicated map so we would not get lost no matter how blurry the
visibilities of the terrains in the forest, and deserts, and jungles, and ocean, and prairies, and
mountains, and skyscrapers of the cities of whatever profession that we will fly in our pursuits
for knowledge to make the difference and make our corners of the world a better place to live.

We hold in our minds that map and if we uphold what we have learned, we will be sure to reach
our destinations safe.

Remember that our parents, our teachers, our principal are once like you and I, too. They have
arrived to where they are right now, and we their children, their pupils and the knowledge that
they nourished us are their contribution to the the future they only thought about when they were
our age dreaming about this very moment where we are now. Our triumphs and our
achievements are their victories, too.

Let us thank them with our prayers, may our little voices would reach God’s ears to bless them.
Let us pay them tribute and pass on their kindness by becoming the best versions of ourselves
that they wanted all of us to become, nothing less. Wherever our journeys will take us, we will
always trace our roots in this grounds, we are always anchored in their arms, in their hearts. Like
kites we are safe in our flights because our strings are in the safety of their caring hands.

Let me read to you a poem written by my uncle, let this poem be my message to everybody who
once were children, too.

Child Once, Too

Let the child run free, uphills or down plains

Like a gazelle that gallops in prairies.

 Let him swim in lakes, bathe in rains

And coquette like the mystical fairies.

Censor him not for he is free from stains

Trust not the filthy mind of the gentries.

Free the child from the restraining chains

And from the customs’ narrow boundaries.

Let him be for his generations’ gains ~

Allow the children to weave their stories.

And now, as we celebrate this milestones in our young life, let us celebrate this moment with
grateful hearts. Our graduation today is our contribution to the future – from the seeds that we
are now, will spring bright citizens of our country that will help sustain and make the difference.
We will be taking different highways from this little road, we will explore the wide skies from
this runway as we take off, we will reach distant shores as we leave this harbour of our
elementary school as proud graduates ready to help build the future for the generations to come.

For our friends, until we meet again.

For our guest of honor, thank you for the inspiration, may our little victory will serve as an
inspiration for you, too, that you could take and share the next time you are invited to speak for a
graduation ceremony.

For our Teachers and Principal, this is not goodbye, this is just asking your permission, and for
your blessings as we take off – please wish us well.

For our parents and family, we offer to you our first accomplishment of the many triumphs and
honors we will bring home from now.

For my dear classmates, let us open our minds and our hearts for growth. The future promises
unlimited possibilities that are in our hands and are for us to seize and to hold. Always take the
bright routes to the future, when the roads are seem dark in some days, take refuge and find the
guidance of the little lamp post of the memories from this moment and we will never get lost.

Let us thank God for this moment. Let us thank Him for all the people, the extension of His love,
His angels that He sent to make sure all that we have now and our future will happen. It is
written.
And when we reach our destinations please let us not forget to look back and send signals to our
dear school, that we have reached our destinations and that we have arrived.

Theme: The Graduate: A Partner Towards Transformationla Society, An Answer to Societal

Change

The Transformational Society sees a civilization on the verge of an incredible transition to an

alternative future. The first wave was the agricultural revolution, the second the industrial
revolution and the third is the computer/information revolution (Toffler, 1980), and the new
wave/fourth wave is the possibility for a new transformational future (Schlifni, 2000). Toffler
believed that we would be in a transformational phase of history. In his view, this "new
civilization", this "third wave" will require governments that are more effective, yet more
democratic than any we know today. The patterns of social change included the move from
hierarchical arrangements to networks, from institutional help to self-help, from industrial
society to information society, and from top-down society to a bottom-up society. Similarly,
Marilyn Ferguson has written in "The Aquarian Conspiracy" (1980) about decentralizing of
social structures into communitarian units.

And now, as we celebrate this milestones in our young life, let us celebrate this moment with
grateful hearts. Our graduation today is our contribution to the future – from the seeds that we
are now, will spring bright citizens of our country that will help sustain and make the difference.
We will be taking different highways from this little road, we will explore the wide skies from
this runway as we take off, we will reach distant shores as we leave this harbour of our
elementary school as proud graduates ready to help build the future for the generations to come.

For our friends, until we meet again.

For our guest of honor, thank you for the inspiration, may our little victory will serve as an
inspiration for you, too, that you could take and share the next time you are invited to speak for a
graduation ceremony.

For our Teachers and Principal, this is not goodbye, this is just asking your permission, and for
your blessings as we take off – please wish us well.

For our parents and family, we offer to you our first accomplishment of the many triumphs and
honors we will bring home from now.

For my dear classmates, let us open our minds and our hearts for growth. The future promises
unlimited possibilities that are in our hands and are for us to seize and to hold. Always take the
bright routes to the future, when the roads are seem dark in some days, take refuge and find the
guidance of the little lamp post of the memories from this moment and we will never get lost.
Let us thank God for this moment. Let us thank Him for all the people, the extension of His love,
His angels that He sent to make sure all that we have now and our future will happen. It is
written.

And when we reach our destinations please let us not forget to look back and send signals to our
dear school, that we have reached our destination

Once, I had a professor who commented about how a certain young

writer should think through what she was writing in her weekly
column. The youth in question is a columnist in a national
newspaper and my professor was just surprised at the young
writer’s ideas. My professor said that this writer has no right to
speak as if the writer has authority, as if she already knows what is
happening in the world and that she needed to stop acting beyond
her years.

I myself was astonished with the figure of my professor criticizing a

youth because of her age. And let me tell you, those words came
from somebody who has authority, those words came from an older
generation who had the background and education to treat
everybody as her equal and to listen to the voice of dissent. That is,
the voice of the youth. My professor berated that youth, mocking
her even for doing her part in nation-building, and I couldn’t
understand why that young writer’s age be such an issue to my
professor, an academic, an adult. Would my professor’s stand
change should it happen that that young writer was not in her 20s? I
think so. But couldn’t we youth speak with authority? Couldn’t we
youth be heard without the older generation condemning us for our
vision? Could they let us be heard without our age being taken
against us?

For generations, your youth has always been a concern to the older
generation and it has always been like that. They say that you are
immature; you are too idealistic; that you need to be i
n touch with reality and accept that life is cruel and that you need to
be bored with that. However, I disagree. I do not believe that your
ability to see things with a sense of heightened perception is
immaturity and I vehemently oppose to the thinking that we should
let the negativity of reality corrupt our mind and soul. An ideal world
will never exist in this imperfect place, but that doesn’t mean that
we should stop dreaming and working for a more bearable society
where everyone is respected and people give rather than take.

But after this commencement exercises, you will go back to your

homes, and this event will be a mere fading memory and it will be
very easy to forget your responsibility as the youth of this nation.
But how do you, graduates, work for that bearable society? How do
you cure the ills of our society? The answer is simple. It is your
education.

Being a young, educated person does not only give you prestige. It
also gives you a responsibility. Now, some of you might say that this
responsibility of changing the society should only be put on the
shoulders of those of you here who have medals and awards. I
disagree. Each of you here has a responsibility of advocating and
enacting transformation. You cannot run away from it, by the virtue
that this country, this society has birthed you, coddled you,
educated you and molded you for what you are right now. You are
responsible for whatever happens to this country, whether you are
an ace student or not.

But you might ask, “How can I change the society if I cannot even
help myself and my family?” Well, your education already helped
you. As for your family, I agree that helping your family is good, but
your help must not stop there. Your parents sent you to school not
to make you workers who would earn profit for yourselves alone.
Your teachers taught you to offer yourself to other people as they
have done every day of their lives. And you, you are studying not
just for yourself. You are studying not just for your parents, not just
for your family. You are studying because you want to change your
community, one person at a time; you want to change the society,
and you are studying because you must make a difference and be
the difference. What is being asked here is not a very big sacrifice.
Because in this time wherein you do not need to be shot at Luneta
or to fall from a tarmac to transform our society, the challenge is for
you to think of your own way to be a catalyst of change. It can be
that your help be in the form of choosing your degree or course
wisely, studying well in college, or to live with simplicity and
integrity. The only problem is that, today, even living with principles
is already difficult to do. But, let me remind you that you are
educated. Nakapagtapos ka, nakapag-aral ka. Your education
helped you, now; the challenge is to use your education to help
transform our way of life.

At the end of this day, it is easy to forget what your valedictorian

and I said here. It is easy to forget your high school life. It is easy to
forget the memories and their faces. But that burden, that honor of
transforming your life through transforming your society will never
be erased, no matter how much you run away from it.

Graduates, much is expected from you. Use the education that you
have right now to shake the status quo for the betterment of our
way of life. For at the end, people will not count the medals around
your neck, they will not count how many subjects you failed, but
they will measure you on how well you contributed to nation –
building.

Ang edukasyon ay hindi inimbento para makahadlang ka sa ibang tao. Hindi

ito inimbento para gamitin ka ng ibang tao, o para manggamit ka ng tao, hindi
ito inimbento para tuyuin ang utak mo sa mga walang saysay na bagay at
lalong hindi rin ito inimbento para isumbat sa’yo ng kung sino man kung
gaano kalaki na ang nagastos sa’yo. Inimbento ang edukasyon dahil kailangan
mong linangin ang sarili mo, dahil kailangan mong pangalagaan ang sarili
mo, ang ibang tao at higit sa lahat, ang lipunan mo. Dahil sa bandang huli,
hindi bibilangin ng tao kung ilan ang medalyang nakasabit sa leeg mo at hindi
bibilangin ng tao kung ilan ang subject na binagsak at i-sinummer mo.
 Sa bandang huli, susukatin ka nila sa tanong na ito: Ano ang ginawa mo sa
edukasyong ibinigay sa’yo? Ano ang gagawin mo sa edukasyong natanggap
mo?

Valedictory Speech

“The Graduates: A Partner Towards

Transformational Society, An Answer to Societal
Change.
For six years that we have striven in our elementary days, those six years can
be considered as one of the most fruitful and challenging events that happened in our
lives. These elementary years are the starting point for us because we are considered
as neophytes in the arena of learning.

To our guest speaker, to our district supervisor, Dr. Edita P. Gonzales, to our
principal, Mrs. Macaria Clarito, teachers, parents and fellow graduates – good day to
all of us.

This day, we will harvest the fruits of our labor. We will receive our
certificates that show we have completed the requirements given by the Dept of
Education. The theme for today’s graduation is very timely to us, my fellow
graduates. The theme “The Graduates: A Partner Towards Transformational
Society, An Answer to Societal Change. The theme conveys to us that we should
work together for one mission and one vision.

The big questions that faces us fellow graduates, is how can we become a
partner towards transformational society, how can we be an answer to societal change
in our young age. Fellow graduates, the answer is very clear and the challenge is very
near. It is our education.

Being a young, educated person does not only give us prestige. It also gives us
a responsibility. Now, some of us might say that this responsibility of changing the
society should only be put on the shoulders of those of who have medals and awards.
I disagree. Each of us here has a responsibility of advocating and enacting
transformation. You cannot run away from it, by the virtue that this country, this
society has birthed , coddled, educated and molded us for what we are right now. We
are responsible for whatever happens to this country, whether we are an ace student or
not.

But you might ask, “How can I change the society if I cannot even help myself and
my family?” Well, our education already helped us. As for our family, I agree that
helping our family is good, but our help must not stop there. Our parents sent us to
school not to make us workers who would earn profit for ourselves alone. Our
teachers taught us to offer ourselves to other people as they have done every day of
their lives. And we, we are studying not just for ourselves. We are studying not just
for our parents, not just for our family. We are studying because we want to change
our community, one person at a time; we want to change the society, and we are
studying because we must make a difference and be the difference. What is being
asked here is not a very big sacrifice. Because in this time wherein we do not need to
be shot at Luneta or to fall from a tarmac to transform our society, the challenge is for
us to think of our own way to be a catalyst of change. It can be that our help be in the
form of choosing our degree or course wisely, studying well in college, or to live with
simplicity and integrity. The only problem is that, today, even living with principles is
already difficult to do. Always bear in mind we are educated. Nakapagtapos tayo,
nakapag-aral tayo. Our education helped us, now; the challenge is to use our
education to help transform our way of life.

At the end of this day, it is easy to forget what I said here. It is easy to forget our
elementary life. It is easy to forget the memories and the faces of our teachers and
friends. But that burden, that honor of transforming our life through transforming our
society will never be erased, no matter how much we run away from it.

Fellow graduates, much is expected from us. Let us use the education that we have
right now to shake the status quo for the betterment of our way of life. For at the end,
people will not count the medals around our neck, they will not count how many
subjects you failed, but they will measure us on how well we contributed to nation –
building.

Ang edukasyon ay hindi inimbento para makahadlang ka sa ibang tao. Hindi

ito inimbento para gamitin ka ng ibang tao, o para manggamit ka ng tao, hindi
ito inimbento para tuyuin ang utak mo sa mga walang saysay na bagay at
lalong hindi rin ito inimbento para isumbat sa’yo ng kung sino man kung
gaano kalaki na ang nagastos sa’yo. Inimbento ang edukasyon dahil kailangan
mong linangin ang sarili mo, dahil kailangan mong pangalagaan ang sarili
mo, ang ibang tao at higit sa lahat, ang lipunan mo. Dahil sa bandang huli,
hindi bibilangin ng tao kung ilan ang medalyang nakasabit sa leeg mo at hindi
bibilangin ng tao kung ilan ang subject na binagsak at i-sinummer mo.

Sa bandang huli, susukatin ka nila sa tanong na ito: Ano ang ginawa mo sa

edukasyong ibinigay sa’yo? Ano ang gagawin mo sa edukasyong natanggap
mo?

To our guests, Teachers and parents, remember us – Batch 2011, committing

ourselves to continue our journey as we promise we will be the partner towards
transformational society and we are the answer to societal change. Thank you very
much and may God bless us always!