Arrowhead students auditioned to give a speech at graduation on Thursday, May 17th. The speakers were judged and chosen by senior members of Principal’s Cabinet. This year’s graduation speakers are senior Marleh Lehmann, senior Riley Reed, and senior Aaron Allen.

According to Principal’s Cabinet member Marissa Treiber, eleven people tried out.

“After listening to all of the speeches, we honestly liked all of them so it was hard to narrow it down to three. We chose those three because all were good speakers and each speech was interesting and different from the others. We were looking for someone who stood out and had a good speech, both in context but that it was relatable and it made sense,” says Treiber.

Lehmann says she knew she wanted to give a speech because she enjoys speaking in front of people and because she gave one at her eighth-grade graduation.

“I took advanced speech so I learned lots of tips and tricks on how to give a good speech. For my eighth-grade graduation speech, my grandpa from Florida was suppose to come and listen but he got super sick so he wasn’t able to, and he was super sad, so I thought if I gave one at graduation, it would make up for it,” says Lehmann.

“I worked for a long time on my speech. I had to give a graduation speech in advanced speech, which I got some ideas from, but I had to change it completely. I wrote a rough draft, then made sure it was almost perfect by having a ton of people edit it, suggest changes, and add things to it.  I wanted it to be something different from past speeches so it took a lot of thinking. I decided that I should do something that everyone could relate to and relate to the past four years. The name of it is ‘Never Close the Yearbook.’ To sum it up, it talks about the lessons we have learned and traits that we have developed over the years and how we should apply what we have learned from the past four years and apply it to our lives for the next eighty years,” says Lehmann.

Allen says, “I’ve actually always loved speaking in front of people as well as just having conversations with anyone who’s willing, so the decision to audition for a graduation speech just made a lot of sense to me. It’s a little different in every situation, but the ability to address people or converse with them and just share ideas and experiences is, I feel, a pretty special thing. I’ll always want to hear what others have to say, and when it’s my turn to speak I want to make sure that I say something that hopefully means something to at least someone, and that was really the idea behind the graduation speech. My speech largely revolves around that idea of ‘not a commuter.’ A commuter is someone who clocks in, and clocks out at the end of the day, heading home without ever really having engaged in the community around them. My speech is a plea with all the thousands of people there that night to not just stand by in your community, rather wherever you find yourself, engage and be fully present. Community is, quite literally, half common, and half unity. A common unity. And that message is what makes me most excited to give my speech next week, absolutely.”