oh god who our creator rescuer and sustainer we gather before you today as people in celebration it's graduation day in peter's township and we are gather together to ritualize applaud and cheer a lot about these young people who have finally reached this milestone we are exceedingly grateful to you god for having governed people and events in way you see the unseen always guiding us even toward this particular turning point nothing of the good or of the not so good of life escapes your watch acknowledge with gratitude that many people along the way here graced with special gifts of life and love to make this occasion a reality very joyous and give thanks for parents and family  or school administrators and teachers or religious leaders and communities or classmates and friends and not the least of god for graduating seniors whose place at center stage today reflects a very significant measure of their work and personal growth we invoke your blessing to be upon us and these proceedings after all the human labor and law that has gone into the planning of the events about to unfold we pray assist us so that what we do here is not empty ritual but rather filled with esteem and respect help us so that what is conveyed here is not hollow tribute but rather filled with sincere admiration and encouragement almighty god we recognize that at this turning point there is both ending and beginning bless each and every one we pray with continuing strength and a vision for the road of life that stretches beyond what is about to take place where we are feel for all a nervous to go on give in a trusting peace where we are unwilling and hesitant to go on give courage and confidence where we are unsettled or uncertain to go give definition and guidance where wonderful creatures of your own making oh god demonstrate now among us the blessing of your presence and rule so that we conduct ourselves in this event with all the good day and welcome welcome to the peters township high school commencement ceremonies for the class of one thousand nine hundred two this is indeed a great day for our seniors their immediate and extended families gues friends gathered here to celebrate these young men and women's symbolic rite of passage into adulthood at this time i would like to take a moment to recognize a group of guests there are particular importance is w pleasure introduced to you and asked if they would rise at this time of the recognize the faculties of peter's township schools have come to share in this grand affair honoring their former students our graduates your children at this time of the faculty seated before me and the stands please rise and be recognized thank you last year i sat on this very stage and listened to the graduation remarks one such speaker at graduation last year spoke of the lessons that they had learned as they weave their way through our school system the message this particular young lady sent was so eloquent and it dealt with lifelong learning i agreed then but even more now that even in the absolute greatest of school systems you will find most students having some difficulty remembering the many salient points presented to them the educational process such examples is how many trigonometry functions can you remember facts about the twenty fifth perhaps not necessarily what was learned but that people were learning how to learn so the rule issue in this quagmire called education may not be what we learn basically from books could there really be an additional meaning to all of this yes in my opinion there is and as demonstrated by the young people in front of me today a lot of facts have been learned and a lot of facts have naturally been forgotten but i believe we have left them with with more important things than just facts some of these learning include such things as inappropriate behavior usually brings as its immediate byproduct bad responses or bad consequences whereas good behavior usually has its immediate byproduct good responses and positive consequences high expectations can be met as it really is all in a state of mind that commitment and responsibility once accepted are not ever to be taken lightly and that trust yes trust honesty caring lov family and friends are all important throughout life but none of these are factual and concrete but are abstract or most important but most often neglected in schools today sure i'm proud of our academic reputation of peters and believe me when i say that is indeed top quality and that this district is a fine place to live and learn but all this aside what i would like to say of my students as far as what they were known for is that they came they listen they failed they enjoyed and they demonstrated to all of us what life was really all about in closing i would like to stress a point that i've been making all week with these young people who are anxiously awaiting the b alumni today graduation is not just for these individuals seated before me yes that's what i said it's not just for them and they i believe they've learned to great gain a respect for their words for you mom and it's for you dad for you grandma grandpa aunts and uncles brothers and sisters and significant others who have pushed and shoved drag love that in some cases prayed them through the twists and turns of life to this day you know what a day is i believe that they have learned  that in me are not as important as you and we now that i say it's a true lesson in life i thank you encourage congratulate my friends and a graduating class of  i'm going in a deuce three speakers at this time the first speaker will be pretty much saying the second speaker will be missed tiffany simmons the third speaker will be mr brad carmichael and the four speaker will be mr devon broglie thank you dan quayle's recent questioning of family values family as a whole has come to the forefront of our society special occasion such as today that families can come together and share in each other's family is not limited to parents and siblings will take us to a place where that helping can can no longer be there from the sheltered community will graduate toward torn by strife and uncertainty from the fractured pieces left by instance such as the l a riots it will be our turn to unite and create a better united states of america as time progresses not only our country but the entire globe will need to be united as one family bears we we will have to overcome are still unseen and solutions have yet to be created social issues from racism to nationalism and economic instability to environmental concerns are plaguing our society these are not issues to be chuckled at through the sunday comics but real problems that the class of ninety two w leadership desire for excellence and strong character can overcome that extraordinary talent challenge will require great effort not only by individuals but a conscious drive by many people as a team i feel that the class of ninety two is a team and a family which will make it difficult to part but part we must therefore i wish the best of luck to all of you and hope that you will face the future with confidence and put forth your best effort when i began to think about my comments for today i reflected on all of my memories from the past four years i am sure that i will always remember prom homecoming the football playoff game the music department our championship soccer teams the senior awards ceremony graduation and many more these memories will always be there to uplift my spirits and give me strength and confidence to deal with any adversity that i may experience in the future but more importantly i am now able to see the value of my disappointments as well those circumstances that seem so awful at the time actually made us stronger they are necessary no matter how painful they might have banned because in surviving them we grow as individuals although we may not see every member of our class again it is important to remember that each and every one of us has touched another person by sharing those experiences and disappointments we have all contributed to the foundation that a classmate will look upon and grow from friends are one of the most influential groups and our lives some of our friendships will last and some will not in either case we will take with us everything that was learned from those encounters this is only the beginning of a lifelong learning process as we jump forward into new experiences new layers of our foundation we should be confident in all of the experiences that we have had it is these experiences that will lead us through our journey into the next millennium i would now like to close my remarks with a poem that is very meaningful to me life is made up of many memories hopes and dreams memories of yesterday hopes of today and dreams for tomorrow the memories give you hope the hope gives you dreams and all together they give you life class of one thousand nine hundred two i am confident that you will take with you many memories that you will continue to hope and that you will turn all of your dreams into reality and congratulations good luck and thank you what i want to talk about today is something that is very important to me that happens to be printed right here on this teacher it says indian pride there should not be a person here graduating today that is not proud to have spent the last four years here at peter's township high school last fall a large portion of the senior class participated in a school play that featured the three days of the high school experience arts athletics and academics three facets that bring great pride to our school i believe the arts at peters are superior this year the music department brought home thirteen awards from toronto in theater mr wood has established a reputation of excellence that is known far and wide the displays in the house continually showcase the creative genius of our painters and sculptors our athletic department is fantastic thanks to our class and special coaches athletic traditions have grown quite rich in the past four years here at p t h s this past year we all shared the pride our football and basketball teams brought us as well as many other less visible athletic programs such as the tennis team's undefeated season the third and most valuable component of the three a's academics academics at peter's are superb the dedication of our teachers has helped us to it acquire an education that is in measurable some of us will become scientists others writers and some will even be teachers but don't matter what road we take we will  remember teachers who have touched us the most we do have a lot to be proud of here peters township i believe pride will continue to make us all great in the years to come because pride nurtures confidence and self confidence causes the best to emerge in all of us thank you teachers administrators and especially classmates you have made me change is imminent and is it is expected but it is also unpredictable world has changed in unimaginable ways in the past fifty years the class of  two graduated in the midst of world war two u s troops were fighting in foreign lands and the future was still uncertain now we the class of ninety two are graduating in a year that has seen the virtual global purging of communism and yet our futures are still uncertain like the class of one thousand nine hundred forty two the only sure thing in the minds of today's graduates is that we are putting high school behind us and moving on the past fifty years have brought improved technology wars peace and more opportunities and with these opportunities come greater responsibility but it is with anxious optimism that we the class of one thousand nine hundred to bark on our paths and face the challenges that will arise fifty years from now i hope to be listening to a handsome young man much like myself recognize me as a fifty year graduate british it is when we step into the future that we must embrace mrs dorothy henderson philips unable to attend today's ceremony health reasons but still in our hearts is mr homer there certify that each member of the graduating class of one thousand nine hundred two have successfully completed and fulfilled the requirements for graduation set forth by the commonwealth of pennsylvania the border school directors of peter's touch of school district  underestimate the significance of the accomplishments being recognized this morning it is important to appreciate the fact that depending upon which studies you would like to read twenty five to thirty five percent of the young people in this country and never will never graduate from high school as i mentioned you're to be congratulated at the same time i would like to thank you for a contribution that you have made to the school district the community and most importantly to all the other students in our district now in those that will count our district in the future contribution is an intangible that i'm sure that none of you have even thought about during these past several weeks when you sat around with your friends or reflected upon your high school experience what you have provided us is another significant contribution towards what we are trying to build here in the peters township school and that is tradition a tradition for excellence excellence in academics excellence in the arts excellence in all of our extracurricular activities and most important most importantly and excellence in all of the ire of the graduates we send away from our school district you as a class and as individuals have helped us build our reputation and tradition for excellence we all thank you for that it is a legacy that one door and one which we hope to grow up on in the future one thinks about tradition and what it means you quickly realize a tradition leads to expectations are pittsburgh penguins are in the process of building a tradition for excellence and with that becomes the expect the expectation that they're going to win the stanley cup again next year we often talk about tradition associated with our great universities and again with that with that reputation comes the expectation that graduates from those universities will will be prepared for will be well prepared for life after college graduation you are embark and you are about to embark on a period in your life which will require several significant decisions that will have a long lasting effect on you where you go to college where you go to work the new friends that you'll be making where you'll be living what kind of career you pursue there will be a lot going on in your life as a part of that process you will be creating expectations for yourself i encourage you to set high expectations for yourself just just as you have set high expectations for our school district although i cannot think of a better way to do it i believe that one of the problems with the educational system is that at the end of the day what we end up doing is measuring individuals and i say individual as opposed to students and we major them in a manner in terms of q and a c d scores and s a t s scores and just the way the math works you end up having to tell half of those students that they're either average or below average as it relates to their peers and i don't like that because we all we really know is that they're average or below average in terms of the in the areas that we intend to measure him and again once we lump all those average is the get the get a overall average together the important thing you have to realize is the fact that you have had academic success or academic failure to this point doesn't guarantee success or failure in the future in fact the recently released study indicated that students who graduate in the top one percent of their class are really no more successful later in life than other students again what that does is create an opportunity for all of you and it also encourages those that have been successful to date to continue to create high goals for themselves you all have the opportunity to opportunity to be highly successful as long as you set those high expectations everybody has different skills and added to aptitude everyone has one or more things that they're very good at doing and generally it's also the thing that they enjoy doing therefore i encourage you to explore and find out what your strong points are in to pursue those high expectations for yourselves and don't sell yourself short in the future again congratulations and good luck to you in the future sorry we have missed one of our fifty year graduates with mrs betty student please stand sorry betty you matthew pinsent vendor matthew raymond perry jason fisher david williams bradley kramer alice was born elizabeth peters see seren jennifer rowling edward j tiger athletics and in service we have indeed had much for which to be proud today with this commencement ceremony we turn the other way and look forward prospect of leave for promise introspectively to continue to seek the passion and perseverance that will be necessary to realize the goals that you set as you become the shapers of tomorrow society or i hope retrospectively with pride respectively for promise and introspectively for passion and perseverance as you take the charge of producing tomorrow it is not of pride that i can  at this time i would like to reintroduce reverend james benediction will you please stand and receive god's blessing lord god bless you and keep you in the lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you lift up his countenance upon you and give you his peace now and always