Tuesday, June 23, 2015
“Hope is a feeling that everybody understands. It means the same thing in every language,” said Herndon High School senior Fatma Gdoura.
Gdoura was one of the nine senior class council members to address Herndon’s graduating class on Wednesday afternoon, June 17 at George Mason University’s Patriot Center.
“It is what unites us now,” she said, to her classmates, teachers, administrators, school board members, Board of Supervisors, superintendent, parents, friends, family and more.
Herndon High School Principal William Bates told students what he thought of the Class of 2015.
“We encourage you, we support you, we appreciate you,” said Bates, who was honored by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors earlier this spring.
“We thank you,” he said.
Students selected teacher Christopher Gannon to speak at their graduation.
Although first honored, he said, his emotions started to shift as he analyzed what must have been the true motivation behind his selection by his students.
“I think I was asked to give this speech as a sign of revenge,” he said, to laughter from the crowd.
He said he then tried to empathize; he thought about how his students tackled the assignments he gave them throughout the year.
“I contemplated not doing it,” he said.
“Then I did what I know all my students do, I texted a friend,” he said, to more laughter.
Then, in an act he said he finds just as anthropologically peculiar as parents must, Gannon took a “selfie” of himself giving his commencement address to “immortalize” the moment.
“I believe all students are capable of success. I am eager to see all that you do to contribute to the world,” he said.
Emma Rose Hammersley received a standing ovation from her peers as she stepped from the podium with an escort from Herndon’s High School NJROTC member Ian Herring.
About 448 of her classmates graduated last Wednesday.
Principal Bates said the last words to his students, before they shifted their tassels, tossed their caps in the air, and left the George Mason basketball floor forever as high school graduates from the Class of 2015.
“We know you will change the world,” Bates said. “The world is counting on you.”