Seniors Ben Katz, Nikki Ladd and Josh Feder will serve as graduation speakers alongside keynote speaker E. J. Dionne June 8 at DAR Constitution Hall.
A panel of administrators and teachers chose student speakers after assessing students on their delivery of a three-minute speech, its content and its relevance to the community.
“We wanted something in there that told a story about the experience, that it was community-oriented, and how they’re moving on,” assistant principal Jerome Easton said.
Unlike schools that select a valedictorian to speak at graduation, these speakers weren’t selected based on academic merit, but on the quality of their speeches.
“I don’t think that one person can set the tone and represent the entire student body,” Easton said. “They may try, but you need different perspectives.”
Dionne, a Whitman parent and political columnist for The Washington Post, will give his own distinct message to graduates and their families. In addition to writing his column, Dionne teaches government at Georgetown University and provides radio political commentation for MSNBC and ABC.
After fellow English teacher Louise Reynolds’ suggestion, Todd Michaels, who organized the graduation speakers, received approval from administrators and student leadership before confirming Dionne as the keynote speaker.
“He’s a well-respected journalist,” Michaels said. “I thought it would be a nice fit.”
To ensure that each of the student speeches is held to the same high standard, each student is paired with an English teacher as a speech coach for content and delivery suggestions.
“It’s great that we have the creative license to write about whatever we want to write about, and say whatever we want to say,” Katz said. “It’s just a little bit of tweaking, a little bit of rewriting and making things clearer.”
Feder is polishing up what he views as a comedic yet still sentimental speech.
“It speaks for a lot of Whitman kids,” Feder said. “I used my shortcomings in high school as a starting point, but the main goal of my speech is really just to speak to everyone.”
Ladd drew from the experiences of others to accumulate a collection of advice she has received throughout her life that she said she believes could be useful to others.
“It’s never a bad thing to ask for help because someone has gone through what you’re going through and they will inevitably know how to deal with it better than you do,” Ladd said.
After initially experiencing writer’s block, Ladd wrote four complete drafts before “connecting” with her speech.
“I’m in no position to give any advice because I haven’t been beyond high school, so that’s kind of the theme that I’m working on in my speech,” Ladd said.
Katz said he reveals his advice through an extended metaphor of something that stands out at Whitman in his speech. Katz said his speech has more of a whimsical tone and takes a creative spin on the different experiences of students.
“Things in high school might not have worked out as we would have liked [them] to, but that’s okay, and in the end, we’re graduating,” Katz said. “We’re moving on.”
From speakers to teachers, everyone involved in the process has optimistic expectations for graduation.
“I’m just hoping it’s as good and as dignified and as memorable as years past,” Michaels said.
