of federal way high school during my speech during my speech i'd like to share some of my experiences with you i hope think courage you and provides some insight for your future as as mine i graduated last saturday from the tacoma done with honors i was wearing a gold court that represented my g p a of three point nine nine and put on a quick and one more court for my participation in the cambridge academy that federal way high school and that's enough all of these demanded excellence in the classroom and my first day in spanish class i sat in the very front row and whipped out a three page double sided foldout grammar guy when i was told that i seemed like a teacher's pet i wondered why what i did was a bad thing and then i realized that it wasn't there's nothing wrong with being an engaged and sick learner and fact that is our role as students the great thing about being passionate and hard working in the classroom is that you become valuable teachers love to work with you and those that are too shy or too  embarrassed to be involved in a classroom end up needing you to do well being an enthusiastic learner is my favorite roles as well my favorite roles in school i'm told to stop talking it's because i'm asking too many questions and it's taking too long to get through the curriculum and not because i was disrupting the because of how i approach education i am automatically a leader a role model my contribution isn't verbal it's a decision that i make that others benefit from by pursuing i raise the standard and on top of that i'm in a position to support others at the bottom with my understanding time and energy a passion for education and enthusiast tick learning is invaluable to be a valuable addition to every classroom that you're in i want to acknowledge some of the factors that have helped me do well in school  parents were a huge support to me this is supported me in my studies even before i cared to and know that it's not too late to receive that support even if you have it in the past if you want to ask for it may also be a teacher that supports you i've lost track of how many times that i've gone to my teacher and told them that i'm falling behind in class nine times out of ten they have supported me through that and other time there's been time there's been opportunities for me to find other teachers that i can better learn from but please know they're willing to help me because they're on of the rules of the class because since i was involved in the classroom process they didn't mind helping me outside of class but those that dishonored the roles of the i'm not in a position to receive the help they need i sowed seeds to receive the help i needed if you don't invest early on you'll have nothing to feed off of later friends can also be a support communicate what you want to achieve and surround yourself with people that can support you through it for me this included friends that also wanted to have a great high school careers i love what i read on alaska usa billboard it said that life is a team sport so let's not do it alone good influences promote you to good things bad influences don't have good influences besides my honors chords i also got to wear  a bronze medallion for my commitment to community service a final quick all right my perspective about service is service over status by romans chapter twelve in the bible it says love from the center of who you are don't fake it run for dear life from evil hold on for dear life to good be good friends who love deeply practice playing the second fiddle the second fiddle analogy is brilliant in life we often want to play the lead role the first little we get here the bible is telling us to practice playing the less important role how can you put others ahead of yourself dan sullivan's lifetime laws of the earth refers to it as making your contribution making your cooperation the more we can make our service about others the greater it becomes one example of this was a hollow painting called two five three squares hunger this was my third time hosting event and it was bound to be a huge success i wanted to bring on two friends as co host you vent but then i thought about it and i realized that this would take away some spotlight from me how is that fair and these guys would be a part of this huge success that i invested two more years into the problem is that if i based my decision off my own glory then the legacy then the impact would be limited to my own potential but by bringing on my friends as leaders it became bigger than me also let me because i made the food drive about us instead of me because i made it great about the service and up my own glory on wednesday out oct thirty first more than three hundred fifty students came to our rally for the event those students represented six school districts and three private schools and together we were able to raise twelve thousand five hundred sixty two pounds of food which is equal to an something about it that's constantly on my mind when i see a teacher that's carrying a heavy load i offer to carry it when i make for a p b and j sandwiches i make i give the best to my brother and keep the ones that have the butt of the bread on for myself i do this because that is how i practice playing the second to ten and that's where i got this they invited the top nine applicants from their african i'm on my they're for african american minority pool and i was invited this event was also accepted to the university of washington on i'm convinced that i was accepted in all these universities because i am a passionate well rounded community member it wasn't just my academics it wasn't just my community service it wasn't just my leadership it was all of it so the lesson is live a balanced life also don't be too overextended in one area or another if nothing else keep your first things first for me that was my devotion to god i'm whole hearted the i'm wholehearted my relationship with him and it has produced and comparable results to be true to yourself and you live more fully thank you parents for your investments in us it has provided the most of you gave everything you had sacrificed it all for us to see through us to see it through to us today you gave up everything you had and ethiopia for the opportunities that we can have here thank you for providing for us and thank you for doing your best for us we've been a costly responsibility and i want you to know that we are better for we honor you today please continue to support us we can be here without you awards to mention some of them i'm going to focus more about my own life and use that as an example to get some points across scientists that they're leading in biotechnology company called amgen whose side is located branches look at it in seattle and what we do is they're cutting edge scientific innovation in research and development to actually develop the next yes the job does require a higher skilled technique but i guarantee you anyone with the right training can do the same job i do now and for me the p h d i got sixteen years now let's go back to the actual story i was not privileged growing around i did not have any special ability to be a part of this place in fact  around my childhood background should not in me allowed me to be here i grew up distant remote rural part of ethiopia at that time did not have a school or to this day did not have a running water or a road or like electricity symptoms smallpox and everyone had a mild symptom but everyone survived it i'm just trying to share the experience that i went through but for me the school is beyond the nine hundred seventy five by a swedish government donation and my parents send us to school so that we'll be able to read and write something they never had for themselves honestly to go to school in the countryside and i same time being required to do your chores every day is not an easy matter the first priority is to do work in the village and were to money for her room a middle school teacher who knew our situation organized the students and the teachers and build us a heart from the wood and the mart and grass that heat we can find around there during weekdays remember we are middle school kids during weekdays we stay in there by ourselves cooking our own food fishing water from a river town did not because to let them stay in a farm or because the challenge was too much to go through it but i believe for me what kept me going along was that i was a part of a group of kids from the same noble hood in war supporting each high school is a different story by itself i moved to the harder high school now that's far from where i grew up we're not we could not visit our families more often to sun from sunrise to sunset that's what they do when you work in a farm well i realized working in a farm was not that easy  i reverse my decision when back to school with without actually telling anybody what i did looking back that was a very good experience for me i looked on my life as two signs that i would get a scholarship but soon when i start talking to a lecturers they were there waiting in the waiting list for a scholarship for eighty years i met some love tourists waiting for eight years for that magical a scholarship to appear i decided to take my own action not knowing exactly what i would get but i started writing letters to actually get my point across that graduates if you are passionate about your future you have to exhaust every possibility available and especially for you high school graduates yes you will be going to college no excuses for you but you will experience new environment you will see new friends you have a new peer pressure you may change your major a couple of times in if you lost but you're not alone that's ok it's a part of finding the person who you are kind of pretty the pre determined setting your priorities and doing every day to actually advance your priority allows you to have other things in your life to have fun spend with friends or social media  whatever you want but make sure that every day you do whatever you do advance is your priority but probably the most important thing i can i can get across to those graduates who will be gain tend to favor those who did in term issue may be unfair but that's a reality and for those graduates who will be joining the workforce i say yes you will be working hard in the area or your transition but remember work for a workplace is a great place to learn a skill as that you may not acquire while you're in college skills such as comic ations skills management skills or leadership skills and these are skills that is are allowing you to advance your career in the corporate ladder or as these are skills that you will find them very useful should you decide to have your own business or some point in your future of course from my story you should know by now who did what for my success but i would say to you volunteer in a cause you believe  yes my parents my wife i've been there all use for me but let's be frank they do have a vested interest in my success but how about those people in  i say next time you volunteer go out and volunteer and because you're going to impact somebody is life potential to reach that success oftentimes in my belief we don't know what our true potential is definitely in my case i did not know my true potential i never planned that i be huge this far never i did not know what i'm saying is for graduates i know you are the primary driver of your own life but there will be people around you who are whole how do you find that potential your maximum potential you're able to do people that would actually friends that would actually push you to excel or people who encourage you when you're in doubt of yourself this billboard actually help you find the true who you are or through potential that you can do for your own life yes i can mention a lot of things through academic and workplace that i found a lot of people hold me but how about i just mention things about places and mountains that i never knew existed and to me it adds to whatever i do right now yes it is hiking it may not be related to my work but you know what it does have a lot of meaning to everyday hello my name is dr paul jackson and i'm sitting in the studio of a multimedia resource training institute located in seattle washington the corner of twenty third in jackson and the problem dod and i'm an instructor actually in the studio i've taught classes here on photoshop and found a cut pro from apple and we're going to do it again we're going to bring in some social media we're going to talk about what you can do with the camera and how to edit and so beyond just the camera we're going to talk about digital storytelling so we'll create scripts and give you an idea of what you can do to tell your story we all have stories and so you can use m m r t twenty certain jackson to tell your story we have a lot of equipment here and we have some tali training and professional people who can help you out to tell your story so the classes haven't been actually scheduled yet it's very important that you come in bridgeport for the class and then we will be able offer classes depending on how many people registered and what you are interested in learning the multi media resource training institute has a lot of highly skilled professional people that can train in  number of different things related to digital media so again if it's not just the camera per se but also about storyboarding about scriptwriting about editing and even from editing what do you want to do after you finished at it and so i know they have take for instance today and it was the twenty third annual taiwan on luncheon that the breakfast group puts on and we actually were able to webcast that event we brought in our cameras have brought in a laptop and provided the state of washington and the mayor of seattle come to attend and so it was a really positive and billy graham beneficial event and again i'm multimedia resource training institute that i can provide those services yahoo not at a low cost so we go beyond just the classroom again we can teach you how to create videos how to shoot how to edit storyboard scripts write the whole thing we can actually come to you to help you tell your story were you happen to be so you don't this is fairly have to come down to the studio if you want to do recognize them today i want to start with the media that's here today a t v then a net all of you guys for being here and for capturing this this amazing event so that it can be saved for future and inspiring us all we are very proud of all your accomplishments and we're very proud to call you ours thank you so now if you allow me i would like to address the graduates and the other young people that are in the room today  about something that's close to my heart community engagement so if you have grown up taking lessons or dance classes or other traditional dances with a tipping community center for some of you both families and graduates this to find out for yourself what you might be able to contribute and in return really contribute to your own development i myself went to high school and attended years of washington i lived in seattle for about eight years before attending to share the skills that i've learned organizing into trade and i'm glad that i found the center as a place where i can meet other professional from all walks of life who want to make our community in seattle  back home a better place since becoming part of the center of organized with the help of the e c s support team with it open mic which is now an annual women's day event here at the center women's issue is something that's important to me and maybe there's things that you care about us a younger leader maybe there are things that you are very passionate about maybe education or the arts or sports or maybe there are skills that you want to learn again as a young leader public speaking debating event planning and these are the skills you might be able to acquire by volunteering here with us there are multiple opportunities for you to get involved there's an afterschool program where you can tutor kids you can help plan and will events your your time it's about contributing positive skills and getting in return valuable experience and talking about leadership skills sense of belonging to a community networking public speaking event planning those in high school