grandparents friends say or any or or any welcome to the graduation ceremonies for the class of two president but my mike's there is taking it to another level this year we've been through lots of difficult times and each time you could count on sarah to do what was right we sit here today as graduating seniors we're like driving our hands are firmly gripping the wheel and tending to our feet are poised over our accelerators ready to speed into a future we can practically gain new independence for the first time in our lives will be away from these people however we can know with confidence that their lessons will always be close to us when faced with conflict w remember their patients when confronted with adversity we can draw on their strength when faced with we will hear their voices in our head saying it is two in the afternoon and get out of bed our parents grandparents and siblings are the people who have seen us at our worst but they expect from us our best and they deserve our fates because they have made us who we are if it seems right now that they will be impossible to leave behind we are right for we take them with us wherever we go our preparation for the road ahead began with our family and was furthered by the education we received here at belmont high school these last three years of high school have provided us with ample challenges but also great reward countless hours of the selfless service to our school and community we came in as fresh eager to take advantage of all the high school had to offer we having done  and so much more we have left our mark on school as bright thoughtful students and people leaders as well as caring human beings we have all worked extremely at everything we have done and that we were able to sit here today probably already however these individual assignments and accomplishments have begun to blur together for what we take from don't high school will not be our awards our championships or our viewers are true education has not been in love so easily graded in the four years we have spent here we have learned how to manage our time read and write critically debated articulately and think a lot of people are teachers here and throughout our common educations have taught us to value our intellects but they also fostered our curiosity creativity and confidence our teachers have been role models and friends to so many of us they have taught us so much more than history mathematics and science have helped teach us who we are through their guidance and example they have helped us become intelligent and compassionate students belmont high school has challenged us to think for ourselves accept and promote diversity and achieve high standards of excellence as a class we have risen to the challenge and surpassed and thus we can advance constantly down the road to our dreams for we know that the skills we acquired here make us capable of attaining academics however have only been part of our education here at p h s our friendships to have taught  deal our friends have been the passengers in our cars they are the people we invited in to keep us company or to amuse us or to learn from they are the people that begin to strangers to us years ago they are the shakers we picked up on the side of the road of life and by the end of the ride i knew exactly what radio station we wanted to listen to without even asking they are the people who we they are the people who know just what to say just want to say nothing at all and when to turn the music up they are the people who point out the scenery when we are too focused on the road and to point out the road when we are too focused on the scenery but most importantly they are the people who remember when we had to walk to the center from the modular unit in sixth grade to hang out in three years they are the people who remember when our parents dropped us off at activity night they are the people who remember the first time we were allowed to take the bus together to harvard square they are the people who know who our first crush was our first kiss was and just what type of joke to tell to cheer us  are the people with whom we can share silence comfortably they are the people who picked us first for their kickball team when we were the worst person in the gym class they were the people who traded stocks with us as seriously as if they were trading stocks they were our fellow ground hog scouts and second soccer team mates they were the people who knew us when we had chicken pox and played four square when our biggest concern was getting home early to watch power insurance and staying up only to waffle house they taught us how to put on makeup and throw curveballs when they didn't know themselves and while we were going to go on  so before we speed ahead into our individual futures and this moment to rushes into the past like pavement under our wheels let us have a moment to check our rearview mirrors look back family and friends who have helped shape our lives this far they have made us the fantastic individuals that comprise this fantastic class a class that i am so proud to be a part of i stand in front of you today moments before we are handed the keys to our future and to the rest of our lives i would like to take this opportunity to commend us on how far we have come and watch us all happy and have far more and how to solve math equations play an instrument or write papers we've learned how to treat people the adults our peers ourselves we have learned to recognise when others need our current attention we can give comfort to those  we've learned the art of introspection we can look for the sources of problems within ourselves and take responsibility for our actions we've learned that each of us is talented in different ways we now know that the best use of our t personal growth as a requirement for graduation however i believe that it is impossible to go through high school growing learning and sharing ourselves with others all the lessons on math science thing russian history might say it never fear nighters to learn but we managed to slip over them you can't find these lessons written in a manual but we believe in them more surely than what was written in our textbooks remember these lessons as you leave here today hold them close and improve upon them if you can for their true measure of a dome of high school education one of my favorite quotes from henry drummond please when you look back on your life you will find that the moments when you truly live are the moments when you've done things in the that introduction was ten seconds ten seconds this is a time it takes a person to run one hundred years it is the time it takes to race car to drive one thousand years how do you measure ten sec centuries ago we couldn't even measure ten seconds today one would use a digital stopwatch or perhaps an atomic clock we can even break down seconds into microseconds or nanoseconds the how long is ten seconds to a couple sitting on a bench it may seem like a few precious moments to a student racing to finish a task may seem like nothing at all to students sitting through math  first days be spent as freshmen feel just like yesterday back when the mass name was the place to be and the rug was still brown we had looked forward to our graduation for so long these past twelve years of schooling startled that's today marks the closure of numerous chapters of our lives as a group before me beautifully saying it's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday imagine years from now how high school may feel just like a blip in our memory and how graduation may feel just like yesterday but spite of changes in the world around us and the changes in our perception of time what we have learned what we truly care about and what we have forged in our memory will never change some things change and some things never will parents felt like a lifetime nothing can change the values that we have learned from teachers parents and each other these are the qualities instilled within us that are timeless these are always the absolute standing out like li ghthouses in the vast sea of time in storm apparel we will always be able to look within ourselves for guidance into the future world becomes increasingly interconnected as technology advances exponentially we will face and overcome crucial economic political demographic and environmental problems that will ultimately lead to find this upcoming century us graduations the class of two thousand and three wish you all the best of luck hope this wasn't too long there is very little that we have to teach you that you cannot learn most things are really simple just things folks like you and i have discovered sometimes the complexity is of our own creation trouble or times his woes of the world a friend come close beside and keep you sleepless i wish for you the thrill of knowing who you are where you've seen and why especially w he's a member of our national honor society he's a talented accomplished artist a member of our varsity soccer team swim team captain and i could go on and on he had over two hundred hours community service and will be attending williams college  a wonderful young woman the order of  our music award goes to a young woman who just has made a tremendous mark on the school in terms of her gifts not only in acting but in singing you've heard her sing already today she has just a long list of  accomplishments that she has worked with in a capella group she said magic goals she also is somebody who cares a great deal about community service she is a recipient the president's award for community service she'll be attending penn state university  and our academic award for science goes to a young man who is truly gifted in this area he excels in almost everything he does he's involved in numerous school activities and loves the teachers rope that he hopes one day to so i enjoyed it a lot more this time parents and grandparents siblings and friends and especially the graduating class of two thousand and three i am pleased to present school committee awards to two graduating seniors a shield certificate for outstanding achievement and exceptional distinction and scholarship is awarded to the senior who is valedictorian of the class of two thousand and three a national merit scholarship winner an advanced placement scholar a member of the national honor society and student senate a member of the teen advisory board for the united way a participant and finisher in the sixty mile breast cancer walk a tutor in the math lab and teacher in her sunday school and brown university in the fall recipient of this award as anna shield certificate for outstanding achievement and exceptional distinction in scholarship was awarded to the senior who us a little tory in the class of two thousand and three a regional finalist in the siemens westinghouse science search the national national semifinalist in the intel talent search for math and science secretary of the math team treasurer of the asian american club captain of the tennis team a member of the national honor society and the belmont high school or was attend harvard university in the fall the recipient of this award is brian clou the class of two thousand and three is an extraordinary group of young men and women you have raised the bar for future classes and academics performance in the arts athletics and community service your advanced placement scores exceeded those of earlier classes and set a standard for classes which followed and a lot of other neighboring public school districts as well your athletic performance in many areas especially boys and girls hockey girls soccer and girls swimming were truly outstanding your performance in coral or castrol and jazz music festivals brought state and national distinction to belmont in the visual arts in theater you have brought enjoyment to our community and recognition to our school system but in my view your greatest accomplishment is your commitment to working for others through the many opportunities you have available for community service despite crammed schedules and full days one hundred twenty students at belmont high school well over ten percent including thirty six seniors each contributed over one hundred hours of community service and received the prestige us presidential award as a group you have shown that you are women and men for others you have made a good start i bid you to continue the good work your parents grandparents and teachers know that our nation and our world need this commitment to the welfare of others and now to the school committee chair scott stratford i am pleased to certify that the students that the seniors here present have met the requirements for graduation from belmont high school that the school committee chairman traditionally gives a speech a graduation i didn't realize it would be the last day our graduates must endure before we can begin to confer their hard earned diplomas so i'm here to uphold the tradition but don't worry i'll be i know how those risers are starting to feel right about in massachusetts as another state's public education is a state responsibility the school committee is a local governing authority that oversees our school system on the state behalf including the awarding of diplomas to students who successfully complete high school this year there was a new massachusetts requirement for graduation a passing score on the massachusetts comprehensive assessment system  that you're about to graduate i can tell you a little secret about the department of education in this test initially they weren't going to call it the m cas test because it's a high stakes graduation requirement they wanted to make it seem more like the mother of all standardized tests but luckily the name they were going to go with mama cass was already  i was told i had one job that was it a course graduates your success comes as no surprise wants on graduation requirements a very demanding generations of our students has shown the value and the quality a belmont high school degree like many of the quote requirements of the massachusetts education reform act and the federal no child left behind act the m p s exams that's a standard that our students and our schools are very capable indulging in addition to my role as school committee chairman i would like a question for just to my children as a citizen of doma and as a parent education is one of the absolutely core values of our town the town white visions twenty one survey a few years ago confirming what most of us already knew that our school system is the number one priority and the number one source of pride a bellman residence this group of young women women that don't want to buy school class of two thousand and three very much continues and strengthens our commitment to education and the immeasurable benefits that it brings the twenty first century will be a global century and they will bring world class understanding and effort to the challenges and opportunities that their future contains this is a class that understands the importance of helping others and instituted over four thousand five hundred hours of community service in the last year alone it's a class understands the importan expression whether through their senior theses their hours on a concert stage or a ball field the incredible variety of clubs and activities they sustained or simply the vitality and spirit they brought every day to the  classrooms of don't want high school and it is a classic understands and invitees the meaning of hard work every graduate sitting before us has made remarkable efforts to succeed to achieve and to reach their full potential and so we congratulate and we celebrate the members of the class of two thousand and three you did it you made it and we're proud of each and every one go in peace live simply