Valedictorian Speech Sample
Matthew Delfino
Valedictorian Speech Spring 2014
Thank you for that wonderful Introduction! Good Afternoon, Members
of the Board of Trustees, President Dugan, Distinguished Guests,
Members of the Administration, Faculty and Staff, and Fellow
Graduates. I’d first like to briefly thank some people very special to me.
Sister Sennick, Dr. Galgan, Dr. Sorrentino,—each of you gave me
guidance and lessons that went beyond the classroom, and for that I am
thankful. More importantly, I’d like to thank some members of my
family. To my stepmother, Sara, and my four older brothers, who were
never reluctant to give their time, money, or words to me -thank you. To
my father, I owe you so much I felt every bit of your sacrifice over the
years; I love you and thank you. Class of 2014, we made it. It has been a long and arduous
journey full of some of the best moments of our lives, and some moments we hope we could
forget. I truly feel privileged to be standing in front of you today.
We live in a world riddled with speculation, skepticism, and governed by appearances. Our
politics is filled with pessimism, and attempts to deeply divide all of us. Our markets are
reflective of a people whose interests lie solely in what they can acquire. A normal standardize
education is now based immensely in specialization and technical training. In fact the notion of
technical training is so common place that coming to a small liberal arts commuter college is
now breaking the norms of our society – and what a great choice we’ve made.
Unique to the students of St. Francis College, is that we all have a story of how we ended up
here. For myself, my four brothers and I were raised by my father. I was content on making
excuses about why I slacked – a mother walking out on her children, not having the best things
(or close to it), and being teased for being different. I would use these as excuses to misbehave,
underperform and be content with mediocrity. In the Spring of 2010, while all of my friends
were going away for university, I was here, in New York. I saw this as the biggest set back of my
entire life. What is now evident, is that it was the biggest set-up. What I did was apply to a
college in a borough that I’d never been to, and college that I never heard of. I was guided by
faith. I didn’t need to see the whole road, just a few feet in front of me.
Upon entering, all of us were taught the story of the Franciscan brothers that came to Brooklyn to
promote lifelong education for the underserved and instill the values of humility, community,
and service to all. Those Franciscan Brothers must be proud of how far we’ve come. This begged
the question in my mind of how a group of Brothers (though they were men of the cloth) could
be committed to a cause ultimately so outside of themselves. The truth is, they were motivated
by purpose and service. Martin Luther King Jr. once said “if you have nothing to die for, you
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