CLASS OF 2011 GRADUATION

JUNE 3, 2011

McLAUGHLIN THEATER FOR PERFORMING ARTS

ST. IGNATIUS COLLEGE PREP

Speech for Teachers

This speech was presented by Eric who will be attending Episcopal School in Virginia in the fall.

I have chosen to acknowledge the faculty and staff here at CJA because without them, my last four years would have been very different.  In the fifth grade I considered myself a rascal.  I did everything I could to get a laugh, but as my time at CJA comes to an end, it’s only now that I realize how much my teachers did to make me realize what a great student I could be.

The average student at CJA enrolls at a third-grade level as fifth graders, but our class graduates as hard-working and honest young men at the mid eleventh-grade level. 

This statistic was made possible by a number of things:  our desire to be better, our parents’ guidance and support, and benefactors who sacrifice for CJA.  But it’s the dedication of CJA’s teachers that binds all of these things together.  Simply said, the teaching staff of Chicago Jesuit Academy are the most dedicated people I’ve ever met.

To be completely honest, I sometimes think these people are crazy for the hours they put in to help us live up to our potential.  It’s not insanity, however, but obvious care that the teachers have for each and everyone of us.  Let’s consider one extraordinary person as an example.

Mr. Diehl wakes up at 4:30 am each day to arrive at school an hour later.  He does this on his bicycle, even in the winter months.  He comes to school to serve as Dean of Students, and to help students throughout the school recognize what’s good in them when they are struggling to see it themselves.  Beyond this, Mr. Diehl takes responsibility for teaching two classes, eighth grade math and science, grades 14 assignments in each class every night, and gets them back to us the very next day.  When he became a father, I expected his commitment to us would have to break, and that would have been understandable, but it didn’t.  Even when it would have been nice to have less attention from the Dean, he was always there for us. 

What makes Mr. Diehl so important to me is that he symbolizes what all the faculty and staff are trying to do every day at CJA.  Because they work so hard for us, we put our best foot forward every day.  Through their guidance, their support, their love, and their own love of learning, I know we are prepared to succeed at our high schools and to live as gentlemen for others.

Faculty and staff, on behalf of the class of 2011, we thank you.