Wow. I was incredibly blown away by the amazing speeches given by the women last Wednesday who were running for Valedictorian! Our graduating class has about 180 students, and apparently about a third of them qualified to put their name forward for Valedictorian this year. Of this, 10 women chose to run for Valedictorian, and I knew at least 8 of them from around school. It was really moving to hear them share about their Brescia experience and why they wanted to represent our graduating class. All of the candidates spoke with such confidence, humour, and heart, and it was really cool to hear how Brescia has impacted their lives.
Although each woman would have brought something unique and wonderful to the position, I think we made a great choice: Elise Maiolino! When she got up to explain why she wanted to be Valedictorian, she said that she wasn’t up there for herself, she was up there representing our whole class. She affirmed that Brescia is about the change that we can make collectively, not just individually. Her inspiring words about how excited she would be to help put together a Valedictorian address that represented ALL of us really struck a chord with me, and clearly with many others!
I can’t wait to hear her at Baccalaureate, our special Brescia graduation ceremony, on May 1st! Congrats Elise!
(You can also read about how much Elise loves Brescia here, since she is featured on the website!)