By Ariana Chengges ’17 | Staff Writer
Grace Muawad ‘15 was nominated by a panel of teachers to represent the Class of 2015 with a speech at their graduation on June 10.
“Being able to represent my class and saying my last final words to them is the best thing to lead on with my life because that last moment before we take our cap off is the last time I’ll be able to say that I’m a South Senior,” Muawad said.
Being selected for the speech took a bit of time, Muawad said.
Grace has excellent knowledge of public speaking, so before she even began, her presence in the room and her ability to interact with the crowd was already very advanced due to her experience in music and theory, Social Studies teacher Elizabeth Rabidoux said.
“The process for this was I had to write my speech and submit it and then I personally went in by myself and auditioned in front of a few teachers,” Muawad said.
Other than Muawad, there were five other seniors who auditioned for this position: Jack Warren, Lizzy Langenberg, Ariane Troschinetz, Emily Zink and Stone Washington.
“While I was speaking in front of the teachers, it was a bit nerve wracking because they were pretty expressionless,” Muawad said. “All they said after I finished was thank you, so I did not know how well I did.”
The graduation speech is an important part of the ceremony at Grosse Pointe South, Izzy Murphy ‘15 said. Every senior seems to look forward to listening to their classmate give a speech every year, Trina Giorgio ‘15 said.
Despite the fact that she has performed in front of people before, she is still a bit nervous to speak in front of about 1,600 people for five and half minutes long, Muawad said.
“Other than being nervous, I am thrilled because I love to be a part of things at Grosse Pointe South including to help our staff and students to make it the best school it can be,” Muawad said.
Muawad puts in a great amount of time with the art department and is involved with all of her classes, she said. She was vice president of Student Association (SA) and she also participated in choir for three years.
“What inspired me to write my speech was a few weeks ago I was talking to my friend about what she wanted to do with her life and she gave me a really interesting answer which is in my speech, and then I was interested in what other people wanted to do,” Muawad said. “Getting to find out the unique and different things that my friends wanted to do that I never knew about was fascinating.”
Knowing what other people think too, is also a huge part of her speech, she said. Her speech is mainly about what people want to do in their future and how South has impacted them in their decisions that have made them move forward.
The content of Grace’s speech was something that would speak to a lot of students across South and something that is really admired as being well written, Rabidoux said.
“Grace has an air of perfectionism about her where she looks very comfortable on the podium and in the spotlight, so it is an honor to have her represent the Class of 2015.”
