Boston Day and Evening Academy

To begin, I would like to say it is an honor to be standing in front of you all today. I would like to welcome all of my fellow graduates, the BDEA faculty and staff, our Board of Trustees, our guest speaker Carlos Henriquez, the family and friends of BDEA, and most importantly Ms. Kunst, Ms. Camacho, and Tanairy for putting all of this together for the second Class of 2012.

 

My name is Arkeem Samuel and I have had the pleasure of being educated at this school for two years.

 

 When I came to BDEA I wanted to be able to show this school the type of student that Arkeem could potentially be. At my previous school, Brighton High, I was known to be that guy that no one wanted to be friends with, because I was making all the wrong choices. I learned that no one wants to be friends with a student that does not want to learn or better themselves.

 

So I took the opportunity to come to BDEA and to start over and to get on the right track, and it has lead me here, standing in front of you.

 

BDEA has taught me that life is a learning experience and that we all will be faced with difficult challenges but as long as we overcome these challenges we will be able to do great things. I am sure that my fellow graduates can agree to this, because they too have overcome many difficult challenges to get here.

 

They are here as proof that we can surpass any challenges and obstacle if we push ourselves to do so. I want to say congratulations to all of you for making it this far.

           

The road to getting here was not easy for some of us, like me for instance. In the beginning of the year I was faced with my most difficult challenge ever. I got myself into some trouble that could have caused me to not be here today. But my two biggest advocates--Sociedad Latina and Boston Day and Evening Academy--took time out of their days to come and help me when I needed them the most.

 

They made it clear to me that this was a big challenge that only I could get past and that I needed to find a way to get around this. My way of getting past this challenge was school! I started to push myself to get where I wanted to be, which was here.

 

Since then I have shown them that I am going to be a well educated African American by going to school everyday, and furthering my education at MCLA - Massachusetts College Of Liberal Arts.  And, most importantly, by helping better myself as a young adult, by finding resources that could help me grow as a person. I am happy to say that I have overcome that obstacle and I am able to be here with my graduating Class of 2012.

 

I want to say thank you to BDEA for believing in me and my fellow graduates. I think that I speak for everyone in the school when I say that without BDEA we would not be where were we are today. I have seen many lives change because of the never-ending support from this school, and I know that all of the graduates today will take with us what you have taught us as we take the next step in becoming young adults in this society.

 

All of you have given us hope, and today the Class of 2012 will celebrate our success because people like you believed in us.

 

Once again I want to thank you all for coming out here to see us end a great chapter in our lives but also see us start a new chapter. To my graduating class, I want to say that Arkeem will always be here for all of you, and I will always remember you as the class that overcame every obstacle that has been placed in front of you. I’m proud of you. I love you all and best of luck to you until we meet again.

The last requirement before graduating here at BDEA is to complete a Capstone presentation and research paper. Our Capstone can be on any topic we chose and I decided that I would do it on something that I loved – Aerospace Engineering. A career path that I have wanted to pursue for as long as I can remember.

 

The process of doing my research was actually fun, I learned a ton and I met some really great engineers in the field. Within three months, my paper and website were completed and all I had left to do was actually present.

 

I had prepared a presentation complete with vocab to help my viewers understand some technical terms and included tons of photos. I even prepared a hilarious joke – which only Mr. Muhammad laughed at, by the way.

 

I was ready to present until I stepped in front of my audience. In that moment I felt the color drain from my face and I knew my nerves were going to get the best of me and so I immediately asked for a moment to step out.

 

While outside the room I could only think of the many times that I avoided public speaking at Boston Latin, my previous school. As a person with anxiety, speaking in front of people has never been an easy task.

 

After a few moments I stepped back into the room knowing that I needed to do this because it was my final step before graduating. I lowered my head, took a deep breath and started fumbling with my note cards and I knew it was time to look up.

 

This time when I looked up I only could see my teachers and friends smiling at me and, without even thinking about a word, I began speaking and rocked my presentation like a real rocket scientist.

 

This isn’t a miracle story about how I suddenly overcame my anxiety permanently and the world became a better place. No – it’s a story about how for one of the first times in my high school career I felt supported and comfortable and I realized all those people in the room that day had an actual interest in hearing about something that I loved.

 

I’m graduating today because one, I did my presentation, and two, because of the support that I got here at BDEA. I’m still a nervous wreck and believe me, I’m freaking out in my head right now, but I am speaking to all of you because those same people are in this room today - along with friends and family - and I’m happy that I get to talk about the school that I love.   

Good Evening everyone. I’d like to welcome all the family and friends that came to support their loved ones, along with the BDEA faculty and staff, administrators, and the Board of Trustees for helping us along the way. I’d like to thank our guest speaker for coming out tonight to talk to us. And last but not least, I’d like to welcome the stars of tonight: the graduates. Congratulations.   

 

Now, all the students in this school, they all have different stories to their lives: different reasons and upbringings that brought them to this school. Some have had it a lot more difficult than others, but I’m one who believes that although it might seem like it, everyone in this world has their fair share of hardships.

 

The Graduates here today, they are definitely no exception to this.

But as you can see, they are just minutes away from walking across the stage to get their diplomas, so you can tell that they were able to persevere through all of the hardships, and I’d like to commend them all for this great accomplishment.

 

I, of course, was no exception to this. I’ve definitely had my share of hardships… Before BDEA, I went to a school that I absolutely hated. It was not for me at all.

I was failing academically.

I didn’t have many friends.

I felt so embarrassed whenever I was there… so different from everyone else.

 

I always thought to myself: Why is it that everyone else is doing so well, but I’m falling off track? Why is it so much harder for me?” I used to think that maybe there was just something wrong with me. It was also around that time that I started struggling with sexual orientation.

 

I slowly started to suffer from depression. I just wanted to be away from everyone. I started to neglect my schoolwork, distance myself from the people around me and skip school. I remembered just feeling as if I was in a dark place that I just couldn’t get out of.

 

My family asked if I would like to transfer to another school. At first I thought to myself: No, I didn’t want to since I didn’t want to go away from the few friends that I had, but then I started to realize that it wasn’t going to get better if I stayed there. So I said yeah, that sounded great, and they let me decide what school I wanted to transfer to.

So from there I think I just typed “Boston Public Schools” into Google and BDEA was one of the first schools that popped up. When I started reading about this school I thought, Yeah, this school could be good for me. It seemed like many of the students here were kids that had trouble along the way and needed to come here to finish school, which is something I thought I could definitely connect to.  If I were going to have a new beginning, I’d like it to be at this school.

   

On the first days of school, I was really scared, because I knew no one. But as time went by, I started to like this school.

One of the biggest things that makes this school different is that it builds a lot on being a family. There were times when a teacher I didn’t know at all would just say “hi” to me as they walk by me in the hallway, and that to me makes the biggest difference, because it made me feel more accepted; more at home. And it was this school where I started to feel like I actually liked going to class.

 

One of my favorite classes would have to be the class that was taught by a man who was so blunt and so real as he spoke about his subject -- I had my mouth open the whole first day I had his class because I was in shock. But it was his class that got me to think a lot about life and for me to realize that I’m a pretty smart guy. So thank you for that.

(Hi Mr. B.)

 

I finally started to excel in my classes. There were still some off days, the days that ultimately everyone has, but it got a lot better for me. I felt like I was finally at a spot where I could be happy, a feeling that I hadn’t felt in SUCH a long time.

   

And now here I am, talking at a graduation ceremony. I’m still surprised that I’m doing this. But I think I needed to do this so I can feel as if I’m leaving without any regrets -- that I finished high school on a positive note, something I felt like I could never do in my past school.

   

I am so very thankful for everyone that supported me:

• My family members… I used to think that they didn’t care, which is probably one of the worst things a kid could ever think, and I’m so glad to know now that I was totally wrong. They DO care.
• Ms. Kuan, my first advisor, she would always be there to hear my troubles whether they be big or small, which is something I didn’t think any teacher would voluntarily do, so thank you.
• My best friend, Nora, for being there at my darkest times. She was the first person I came out to and that meant a lot, as she was the first person to accept me as who I really was, and that meant everything to me.

 

So once again, I’d like to congratulate the graduates, as I’m sure many of them went through a lot of things like me, and are able to be here today to say, “I did it. I pushed through everything and was able to succeed. I got my high school diploma” -- which is a big accomplishment.

 

Of course, this is not the end for all of us: it’s a beginning -- a beginning to hopefully a very bright future. And personally, I am finally happy with where I am.  Thank you, everyone, who supported us along the way to this great success, whether it was in a small way or in a big way. Thank you. And I know that from today and to the future, I will always be proud to be a graduate of Boston Day and Evening Academy.