Being a senior is difficult. A lot of pressure is placed on high-achieving students, especially in today’s day and age. There is pressure to get high grades and test scores. There is pressure to “diversify” your resume by participating in an array of sports, clubs, and activities. There is pressure to fulfill your obligations to your friends and family, and to find employment to support yourselves. The Class of 2024 also faced unique stressors. We saw the first half of our high school years wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, we are set to graduate into a highly competitive job market, where artificial intelligence and automation loom large as a threat to white-collar employment.
Yet, the seniors in the Class of 2024 have persevered, pushing through the many challenges we as a class endured. There are many truly exceptional students in this class, ones who are well prepared to achieve great things in the future. I am proud to be among the highest achieving students in the class of 2024, and I am proud to share that honor with the many other hard-working seniors who have truly made the most of their high school experience.
But, what does achieving greatness in the future look like for people like me. For many people, achievement equates to personal success. People desire to earn a large salary, own valuable assets, and to be a person their peers look up to. While I also want to be a person that others aspire to be, I choose to do it in a different way. In the fall of 2024, I will enroll at the University of Oregon as a planning, policy, and public management student, with an intent on pursuing a career as a public servant in the housing and transportation sector. This is, by no means, a glamorous profession, as the work of public servants often occurs in the margins of society, and thus, their recognition and salary are much less than that of a doctor, lawyer, engineer, or business executive. It is not a conventional career choice for a high-achieving student such as myself, but, it is the career in which I see my life having the most purpose. Public service offers me a chance to do things that those other careers cannot: be a voice for change for underrepresented, underprivileged communities.
We live in a stressful world, and no group of people bares the weight of that stress worse than those born without the same resources that have propelled us to great success. There are students in America today, who, similarly to us, are leadership-minded, academically profound, and driven, but, who do not benefit from the same assets we as middle-class students do. They may live in an environment that does not properly nurture learning. Their family may not be able to afford reliable transportation, food, or housing. They may be dealing with family issues that distract them from academic achievement, or any combination of these factors. For every student who will graduate from Millard South with honors this may, there are countless others who have fallen through the cracks of the public education system due to poor external circumstances, despite possessing all the same talents. I want to be a voice for voiceless, and create a world where student success is determined based on ability, not familial income. I want to change the problems I see in the world. And, if you try hard enough, you can too.
This school is home to many highly talented individuals; young people possessing the potential to enter the world and change it for good. Our talent is undeniable, but what matters is how we use it. We can use it to build ourselves up, or we can use it to build other people up, in doing so shaping society in our image. There is an absence of young voices among those orchestrating global decision making right now. An older generation is setting policies in place that benefit their needs, not ours. Together, we can use our collective voices to change that.
Noticeable change in the world may seem difficult on the surface, but it is possible for young people to change people’s lives, and I exist as a living example of that. In 2023, I organized a donation drive across three Millard schools that was able to collect hundreds of new clothing items that were donated to foster youth across the state. You can change people’s lives in small ways, as I do when I teach children how to swim at the YMCA, or in large ways, as I do when I engage in community activism at the Nebraska State Capitol. With enough support, any dedicated person is capable of achieving the good they want to see in the world.
Find an issue in the world that needs to be fixed, one that deeply motivates you to speak out for change. No matter how out of reach it may be, there is something you can do to help solve it. We are capable, intelligent, and resilient young individuals, people with the ability to tackle the problems of life as a young person. We can speak up for what we believe in, and we will. We can fix the issues plaguing our world and put our generation’s voice: one of lasting, positive, societal change, atop the pedestal of public policy. We will be the young leaders of this city, this state, and this country. We are the voice of a generation. And together, by setting our minds towards change, we can do great things. Dream big, because the future of our world lies somewhere in that dream.
