anything please rise and remove your hats for the singing of our national anthem followed by the peters township mater sung by graduates brian based or joseph bell for your you graduates you may be seated good evening ladies and gentlemen and honored guests on behalf of the peters township school district administration and board of directors welcome to the two thousand and seventeen peters township high school commencement ceremony we were a little worried earlier today but it has turned out to be an amazing evening as principal peters township high school it is my sincerest honor to present to you this exceptional group of young men and women the spirit and character of the class of twenty twenty seventeen was built with the aid of quite a few people and i would like to take a moment to before we start our program to acknowledge those people who are sharing in this celebration tonight first and most importantly our parents and families thank you for providing the constant guidance and support and listen mounds of transportation and much needed laughter and often a shoulder to cry on this night  as much for you as it is for our graduates graduates please stand turn to your parents and give them a big round of applause for everything that they've done for you seated with our graduates tonight are their high school teachers joined by their elementary and middle school teachers to the left and right of the stage are our building principals and guidance counselors over twelve years of schooling these graduates have spent sixteen thousand two hundred hours with the staff members staff members who have planted the seeds for success and established a solid foundation for learning leadership and character on behalf of this senior class i extend a very special welcome to you and thank you for joining us here to celebrate class please give them a round  joining me on stage is the superintendent of schools dr janine french and the board of school directors led by board president mr thomas mcmurry and vice president mrs rebecca bowman and including members mrs mina allison mrs lisa anderson mister mr ronald dunn levy dr jamison hardy mr william merrill and mr daniel taylor tonight we commemorate the graduation of these three hundred thirty nine students because of your caring leadership and insistence on excellence thank you for all of your selfless work and lastly before i introduce our first student speaker i would like to take a moment to recognize those individuals who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes to guarantee that tonight runs smoothly and they have their work cut out for us this year our media and tech teams including our partners at channel seven the secretarial staff the maintenance staff and custodial staff mr lesson mrs ragland the high school counselors and all of the teachers who volunteered their time throughout this week many many many thank you's there aren't enough thank you's for all of the work that you've done a big round of applause for those people good evening i think we all can agree that we witnessed many linguistically gifted speakers stand up here over the years as an intended not major i'm not one of them first and foremost i'd like to honor our special guests tonight peter's township's class of nine hundred sixty seven the members of the class of sixty seven we're obviously a resilient bunch a bunch then full it's not a city and now a photo of wisdom for those that lived in the area during the late sixty's you might recollect what a progressive period in time it was for our school district in fact nine hundred sixty seven marked the start of the construction of our current high school if only the building is as well as these folks did let's give a round of applause for peter stone since class of nine class of twenty seventeen or a unique group we're unique in the sense that we have a wide array of interest strengths future plans backgrounds and opinions amongst many other things what we all have in common however is the skill set readying us for life granted by everyone with us today and more we're taking leaps toward our future a future that most of us have been thinking about for years will face adversity that must be overcome we need to begin to think in terms of our own inner strengths our resilience center source oneness our capacity to adapt and to rely upon ourselves and our families personally i know for a fact i wouldn't be where i am today without the support of my loved ones i'd like to specially thank my mom my brothers and whoever invented copy and paste i hope that today everyone can recognize who they're here for with and appreciate their love and support appreciating what we have is sometimes hard to grasp especially since we're such an affluent community however tonight i hope that everyone here will think about and be grateful for it all it's important to embrace your family and everyone who has supported you along journey costa twenty seventeen a sake a moment to appreciate these special people in our lives again and give them around  a few weeks ago my family and i went down the road to south point for a scholarship award banquet we're fortunate enough to hear guest speaker u s marine major general peter j tyler speak to us on the topic of success he talks about what it means and what it truly takes to succeed something that could benefit us all after all we're here to celebrate our success the success of the class of sixty seven and also the path toward success we the class of twenty seventeen are heading down now in order to explain it major general salary is shared a short story that i'd like to pass on today figured it must be important if a man who actively served at every level in the marines chose to share them so it's the story of a a man in search of an answer one day a young man hears of how to reach an all knowing you're in the mountains fed up with his problems the young man decides to make a trip to see him after a long track the guru sitting on the shore of the lake he cautiously approaches him and asks excuse me sir i heard you have the answers to any problem how can i succeed grew slowly glanced over at the man he replied meet me here tomorrow at five am and then left the man returned at five am only to find the guru already there figure walked up to the edge of the lake and back in the man closer unquestioningly demanded as he ordered suddenly he felt himself seized by a strong hand at the back was in that his head was forced down under the water and held there firmly the man fought and clawed but his effort seemed impervious to the grease grip his heart beat heavily in his chest his throat tightened and his long scream for air he fought with all of his might but he couldn't seem to loosen the vise on his neck precious seconds passed and he felt his strength slowly i away but the guru knew precisely when the man's body could take no more and release his growth the man was flooded with emotion as oxygen poured back into his lungs the man yelled and yelled demanding an explanation for his actions figure finally acknowledged and you wanted to know the secret of success here it is do you remember just a few moments ago how badly you wanted to take that next breath of air when you  success that badly you'll have it that the secret of success one rotten juncture like this in our lives we all want to succeed but it takes more than just a one if you really want something you need that initiative that unrelenting ambition that burning desire the type of desire that got michael jordan six championship rings the type of desire that got to that's about example the type of desire that bill gates eighty seven billion that got her fifty year grads through all the adversity thrown at them so they could be here with us today like the class of sixty seven we've been prepared for the world by some of the most phenomenal teachers and mentors around like those before us we must use these gifts that we've been granted to make the world a better place we may all have different definitions of success but one thing is for certain life is too short to never attain that feeling of success th thank you and now please join me and welcoming your senior class speaker  oh i have a dream wait sorry wrong speech ah here it is a steam faculty and administration honorary fifty year graduates and a school which once hosted emma watson better known as her a granger i could not be prouder today to speak on behalf of one of the greatest classes to leave peters township the class of twenty seventeen when deciding on what to speak of i thought it would be appropriate as my closing remarks to give you five rules on what i've learned in my world the experience living in the modest and very diverse peters township a lot of you here are probably asking yourself why five are in what's the significance are you and are five years going to dictate my life i'll give you the answer the principal told me ari and you only have enough time for five the happy why why not moving on ok just getting it seems like a simple chore but in reality it's not i'm not saying the short burst of happiness from bingeing your favorite netflix show or simply convincing your teacher to move the test next monday but when it comes down to the main point it's the feeling of every day enjoying what you do my grandpa tells  story best born in india and known for his pep talks in the family i d n a so when i got to aryan stop sleeping and do something but just recently he was giving me a different cup talk instead of simply doing the blind head nod i was fascinated by a story my grandpa was teaching math from six a m to eleven p m every day of his life and before i went well settled i'm never working hard a day in my life he told me something sort of beautiful he was happy every day this amount of teaching combined with a short lunch break was happiness and if you ask him today if you were granted any moment who gave you the same answer he gave me no his example is and should be no exception the truth is we can all find our happiness if we're willing to go out looking so i ask you class  twenty seventeen to find that happiness rules to listen to those around you your brother sister best friend teachers and yes your parents sounds dumb i know at this point if you haven't tune me out i can tell you that listening to others is everything i mean over the past eighteen years of i'd taken some advice from others i'd have probably saved a couple hundred dollars and probably got hit her the head last times by my mom so love you mom a lot of you are moving on some of you ten miles away and some of you a thousand miles away you're on to the next phase in your life maybe there's unfamiliar faces and unfamiliar territory and you might just feel lost but there's going to be people in your past and future there for you and not just for weekend laundry and free food but that want you to succeed so never hurts to hear someone out rule three don't give up the fact is there is going to be failure in the future and i'm sure there's already been failure in the past but today i'd like to talk about how a failure shaped me when i first came to pittsburgh in two thousand and five i came into the prime season of penguins hockey two of the league's current best player sidney crossman of guinea malkin had just been drafted witnessing my first hockey game with my dad i immediately became captivated by the energy of the game and as a young kid more than ever i could see my name on the back of one of those jerseys and for those upcoming years i hold on to that dream i came to those six m to eleven p m practices i skated for hours until i felt falling like felt like falling over and when i was benched after a bad game i would come home and make sure to work twice as hard that next game i am no stanley cup champion or for that matter state champion but while i may not get to wear my name in the back of console energy center i will never regret a second i spent on that i hockey taught me that people can mess around with you off the ice and still have your back on the ice it taught me how to work as a team regardless of the situation it's taught me how resilience passion and hard work can lead to victory these skills while not furthering my childhood dream have only made me stronger in pursuing my current passions and making myself a more successful person while my example may not perfectly encapsulate everyone hears know that the people that fail the most become the most successful i mean look at me now i'm on top no no literally i'm on top because of the podium and all but truly past all the times you get pushed down you will come back up and excel not a rule for remember don't go into the world with the idea of forgetting because everything we've had over the past years has been special the times we've wept as a school for another student there the times we smiled to the success of our teams there the times we've been lost freshman year software year junior year now as i am standing on the stage giving the speech there are times where we've tried to fit into the puzzle board hoping that the shapes ingroup the line into finding some sort of meaning there are the times where we felt alone been our community of found someone to lean on look around you and don't forget remember that five ten fifty years from now those around you shaped you and you should be eternally grateful for that they are part of you and they are the ones who made you who you are today before we get to our final rule i want to digress and thank you the class of twenty seventeen for some of the greatest and most questionable memories for the ups and downs for pushing to gather through the grey skies and jerry monday mornings for letting me borrow a pencil even though you knew i would never return it for teaching me that not only in everyone lies a potential to succeed but out to harness it and make that difference class of twenty seventeen i want you to thank everyone in your life that brought you here your teachers your coaches your parents your friends your significant other that your parents don't know about because without them we may not have forced internationally place business leaders scholars researchers state recognized baiters community activists section where people and state champs this is the part of the program where i get to talk to you and you've heard a lot from me this week probably more than you want to but now i have you as my kept captive audience so i want to share with you my thoughts seniors four years ago you walked through the doors of peter's township high school a much different group of young men and women than sit before me today you were hesitant a little bit smaller but very eager to be high school students and slightly maybe more than slightly apprehensive about how the next four years would go much has happened since that day and your paths to this point have varied but some of you have chosen the most challenging academic road and your chief mints have led to awards and scholarships that you are relishing in today others have chosen a more physical and personal journey leading to tremendous southlake successes in individual and team championships at the whitfield state level and even outside of school and so others have explored even new pathways that have led them to discover a passion for theatre art music media service and even aviation you are a talented and eclectic and very fun loving group class of twenty seventeen many of you have hit more than one of the categories i just mentioned while some of you are still struggling to find your way and that's ok it's ok to still be searching after all your life journey is just getting started but tonight we are here to celebrate the one commonality that you all share today is the one and only day you will ever graduate from high school today you and three hundred thirty nine classmates have all done the same thing at the same time you have all earned your peters township high school diploma this is an achievement that you should be very proud of because i know i am give yourselves a round of applause so as i thought about what i wanted to say to you before you left us and i've said a few things to you already this week it became clear to me that you share a common goal and that goal is simple to become your best and most authentic self that seems easy but it really is not for most of you you haven't discovered who that is yet but your experiences over the last several years are really helping to define that person you've made friends you've lost friends you've had crushes maybe fallen in love had your heart broken been inspired by others and witnessed harsh and unfair treatment think about how each of those events has shaped you your interactions with others are already so complex and challenging and your dilemmas in the future will only become more difficult will you use your amazing intellectual skills to try to resolve them will you rely on others to give you guidance will you google a solution or will you ignore it and hope that it goes away if you make a mistake or wrong someone will you own it and try to make it right where you stand up for someone who cannot stand up for themselves in the face of adversity where you shine or will you shrink you all have the ability to shine i know that i've seen you do it those who shine do so with empathy compassion and objectivity they use each frustration each failure and each disappointment to learn and grow through this process they find their authentic self this is what i wish for each and every one of you i leave you with the words of author an educator william ward because he says it better than i do do more than belong participate do more than care help do more than believe practice do more than be fair be kind to more than forgive forget do more than dream work class of twenty seventeen i wish you every success in your future it has been my honor and my privilege to serve as your principal congratulations on your graduation it is also my honor to present you to the superintendent of schools dr janine french good evening i've thought a lot about what i want to say to you this evening as you prepare to leave us and i thought it most appropriate to talk about the things that were shared with you when you first came to us the things that you learned when you first entered school those very important lessons about how to get along with others and graciously be one among many and if you recall some of those lessons easier to learn than others the don'ts those are the easy ones don't run with scissors don't cut the line and certainly don't eat the paste those were the easy ones the more difficult ones where the do's do your best to tell the truth even if it means getting in trouble say please and thank you keep your hands and your feet and your i'm kind word to yourself and say you're sorry if you hurt someone and as difficult as those lessons were to learn as children they're even more difficult to live as adults if you see somewhere along the line and i rushed to get ahead and to stand out in a crowd we shared those lessons like we shed the thick pencils and the wide line paper that we no longer need i would say though that we need those lessons now more than ever just like naps and cookies will always be good for your soul the lessons that you learned as children will be the sav that begins to heal the wounds of this world imagine for a moment a world where we all took turns we shared what we had said please and thank you we kept our hands our feet and in our own kind words to ourself and we had the courage to say i'm sorry i hurt you so today as you prepare to leave us i asked simply that you take with you the lessons that you learned when you first came to us so go now with calm hearts and make it so congratulations good evening on behalf of the peters time of school board welcome and congratulations to the graduating members of the class of twenty seven team as we wish you good luck good laughs good health good choices and much happiness and success the members of the class of twenty seventeen were asked to consider a faculty member that they liked edmar respected and in their eyes made a difference in their high school career middle school she moved to the high school in two thousand and two and has been teaching english here ever since she is the proud mother of two children helen and steven both of whom live in pittsburgh she also has a daughter in law jennifer and two grandchildren louise eight and jackson four please join in award warm welcome for joy and back i'm really very honored to be speaking to the graduating class of two thousand and seventeen and their parents and their relatives and their friends and of course their teachers their administrators and the school board members and of course the honored graduates of one thousand nine hundred sixty seven i also graduated in one thousand nine hundred sixty seven i used to think you were old but i don't think that anymore except i went to thomas jefferson i was going to open with a little joke but that can be sort of risky you don't know if what kind of sense of humor some people have or if they have a sense of humor so i thought i would share a couple of little known facts about myself of course the first fact is not that little known me a lot of people who know me know this that i dated john lennon of the beatles back in the sixty's thank you this song i want to hold your hand was written about me and dedicated to me i also sang backup for aerosmith for a couple of years and they still are my favorite band and in one thousand nine hundred seventy one when i was still in college i was offered the role of don corleone in the godfather but my good friend marlon brando needed a comeback role so i encouraged him to try out the rest is history and the rest actually is history we know of course that lisa little tid bits are what they call fake news and alternative facts which which are so popular now and can be so funny of course as far as i'm concerned i also call them wishful thinking but let me get to the crux of my speech actually everybody that spoken here between dan and ari and mrs powell like and dr french everybody said basically what i'm going to say i have a few things to add my students always think it's kind of funny when i tell them that my husband and i did not raise our children to be happy but we didn't it's not that we didn't want them to be happy but it certainly was not the first thing on our minds we wanted them to come to happiness by a totally different route not by what they wore or where they lived or what they drove or where we vacationed or what clubs we belong to we wanted them to be happy because they were productive because they contributed because they were part of something that was much bigger than a were and that gave them perspective because they saw themselves i guess is part of the human condition and not the center of the universe that's how we wanted them to define themselves by their actions towards others their strengths and their compassion my husband and i had serious expectations for them we expected them to think for themselves and not follow the crowd we expected them to get the facts and not settle on opinions and certainly not the opinions of others we expected them to work hard at everything they did including academics and athletics and part time jobs we wanted them to hear the great words job well done or outstanding effort because they earned it not because it was passively  them and we wanted them to defend a cause or a friend who may believed in and if as a result they found themselves shunned by their friends or in a lot of hot water or called on the carpet or unjustly accused we expected them to be alone and learn how to sit with their misery and then we expected them to have a hand in solving that problem you can learn an awful lot when you have a hand in solving your dilemmas our expectations for them and their willingness to work with us were more important to my husband and me than whether or not they were happy and so for you dear students this is what i hope for you i'd like you to thank someone when they do a great job when they make a difference or when they impact your life i'd like you to embrace your brothers and don't prejudge them condemn them or bully them and i'd like that no matter who you are now or who you grow to be i'd like you to be able to you know willingly admit that you don't know everything i'd like you to believe in a good world and the goodness of mankind and then go make it happen i'd like you to talk to your parents often for insight for understanding and for direction and i hope that you never ever ever take part in any version of man's inhumanity to man i hope you experience some hard character building back breaking work i hope you find good compassionate friends make wise and intelligent choices believe in noble and inspiring causes elect cultured and honestly leaders make outstanding contributions to society become a member in the brotherhood of man and in another ten years offer me a job in your fortune five hundred nonprofit company thank you i'm very serious about that  i think you need to begin thinking now about your legacy i know when i came on board here about twenty four years ago it was really on my mind about how i wanted to be remember remembered and i think what i thought then is still true now and if you would sort of help me say that how does mrs specter want to be remembered thank you did you hear that stream leaf and breathtakingly beautiful i love you all thank you very much while graduates this is the moment you've been waiting for we will now present the diplomas to the class of twenty seventeen first row of seniors first row of seniors please rise and proceed to the stage matthew jacob alexander nathan robert ald william joseph barnes michael john barry meghan mary byrn anthony michael lauren elizabeth campaign james mark bowman tyler nathaniel bro maxwell william alexander bruce emily christine nicholas and word but you're right madison the cold anthony benson cast alone alison elizabeth michael anthony dennis j courtney junior james joseph curr alyssa renee murray no cole gallagher corey robert de ro alexandra thompson garcia mckenzie carrie gentile maria teresa mitchell thomas de bana woods jessica francis glover michael conrad lindsay marie harvey daniel christian florentin gabrielle and holland  carson ray johnson isabella lane cal brian orlando noah anderson greenberg mia isabella key air on hall alyssa renee caroline healy langley catherine nicol abigail margaret mckay  and arthur helen charles casper michael tom c daniel james kita julia and morris calling thomas marker lindsay nicole pendergas angela grace robert hawley and rosanna daniel o'donnell mallory marie scott ranger tre outlaw joseph michael laura rose sho david j paul alyssa christine sil brandon john paul or maggie nicole simon alexander james kathleen marie smart shauna christine jeremy william shannon riley star eric cameron riyad michelle strauss's our jake hunter rose claire rebecca stuck daniel robert rudy rachel margaret sullivan joseph schmidt abby claire tar water andrew joseph shuck brenna nicole taylor hannah regina taylor gregory ryan serena evan lynn tell b andrew josephs of vera cassidy taylor tom ethan charles smith allen michael snyder danielle ga renee  alexander martins stone alley marie when nicholas michael shook to george raymond tal trevor michael thomas ashley marie wilkes shane patrick van amber adi ana nicole williams ryan bradley walter livia and sara marie brandon anthony war alexandra le anthony robert well dominic james well jonathan david wel thomas raymond will ethan james young please welcome back to the state dr french to certify our graduates now with the authority vested in me by the secretary of education of the commonwealth of pennsylvania i pronounced the class of two thousand and seventeen for the peters township high school graduated this concludes our two thousand and seventeen commencement ceremony thank you for celebrating with us and best of luck to our two thousand and seventeen alumni congratulations graduates you may now celebrate families are welcome to join the graduates on the field there was