With the school year coming to a close and the pandemic raging, students across the nation unfortunately will not be able to walk across the stage to recieve their diploma.

Normally, students would recieve commencement speeches from special guests, the valedictorian, the salutatorian, and the class’ president. However, the year 2020 is a one of a kind where students will partake in graduation in their homes.

Luckily for them, former President Barack Obama and the former First Lady Michelle

Obama agreed to making a virtual speech for the whole class of 2020.

On May 16, Obama posted a speech for the college/unniversity graduates and also a seperate speech for those who are students of HBCU(Historically Black Colleges and Unniversities). He assured the class that life will go on and those dissapointments will soon cease, and he especially reminded them that “… your graduation marks your passage into adulthood — the time when you begin to take charge of your own life.”

In June, Obama will also be making a speech for the highschool class of 2020 when most highsc hoolers will graduate.

Below are some thoughts seniors at Wayne Hills have of Obama’s speech.

Katy Ortega believes”… it’s very generous of obama to keep in touch with Americans and let us know that he still keeps us in his mind. Creating a speech to congratulate our class is beyond thoughtful of him and shows me that even though he is out of office he still cares about us.”

Jimmy He is thankful for”…the efforts that so many people are taking to encourage the class of 2020, especially since so many of our celebrations are being taken away by the pandemic. I think Obama’s commencement speech was very empowering and shows that despite the struggles we are currently facing, we can use it to better ourselves and work towards a solution.”

Dina Faqih appreciates”…the effort that Obama and others are putting in towards making this unusual situation feel a little more better. Even though it is an unfortunate case where our achievements wont be traditionally acknowledged, it is nice to see important figures congratulating us.”

Angela Reyzelman explains that”[A]fter largely avoiding the spotlight, it was reassuring to see our former president step into the spotlight and acknowledge the disappointment that not only the class of 2020, but that all students are facing.”

Link below for his full speech: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/16/us/obama-graduation-speech-transcript.html