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Good morning administration, faculty, staff, family, friends, guests, and the Class of 2011 my name is Scott Dona and I am honored to be Damien Memorial School Class of 2011 valedictorian. I can’t believe we are here. This is our moment. Thank GOD!!  

This was by far the most difficult speech I’ve had to compose. It has taken me days to actually sit down, gather ideas and thoughts on what I’d like to say. I imagined I’d speak about our great times in high school, or some inspirational story to shoot for the stars, and lets not forget the deep expression of gratitude to our parents and family who are the backbone to our successes.  

I asked several of my friends on what to write about or what they’d like to hear during my speech, and they all came up with the same topic, and that was brotherhood. I asked my family on ideas on what to write and how to make the audience laugh, but was told to speak from the heart, because you can never go wrong with what comes from the heart, so here I go.  

The Class of 2011 displayed camaraderie during our time at Damien whether it was a handshake in the hallways or a wassup bro in the classrooms. Our class has no punks or bullies. What we have are each other. When one person was messed with, the class had his back. We have pride for our class and we always stood by each other, man to man, brother with brother.

The Class of 2011 is a class of unity and no one can take that away from us. Our class is well rounded and we were able to balance school and activities. We have Damien’s first ever National Merit Scholar as well as athletic stars in our football, basketball, wrestling, and paddling teams. We have academic scholars excelling in sports matches as well as athletes scoring high in honor’s classes. This graduating class received 3.4 million dollars in scholarship money, the most in 5 years. Another example of how bright the future is for each and every graduate here. 

With all the blessings and hard work we’ve accomplished we couldn’t have done it without the loving support team around us. On behalf of the class of 2011, we would like to thank the following.  First and foremost, God for his countless blessings for without him we wouldn’t be where we are today. 

I would also like to thank our parents and guardians who have supported us continuously throughout the years. A very big special thank you to my parents Renato and Carmen Dona who tirelessly give their love, support, encouragement, blood, sweat, and tears so I could attend Damien Memorial School. No words could express my gratitude. Thank you Mom and Dad. A big mahalo to all our support team who made the sacrifices so we can proudly stand here and accept our high school diploma. You all have shown us that you value the importance of education. 

To the faculty and staff of Damien, thank you for instilling in us the knowledge that will further us in college, the invaluable characters of discipline, responsibility, and accountability that help build true men here standing before you today.

Billy Cosby once said, “In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.”  You must want success in order for it to happen.  Everyone fails, but it is from these failures and mistakes that we learn what success is. 

Success is not a destination, but a journey.  Kobe Bryant is considered to be one of the best players in the NBA and if people are given a choice of who they would want to take the last shot for their team, they would choose him. If it was 5 seconds to go and only enough time to for one shot, Kobe is your man. He is THE clutch player. However, it was never always that way.  He missed game winners before he made them.  In the 1999 playoffs against the Spurs in Game 2, Kobe attempted a 3 pointer to tie the game, but he missed it.  It was heart-breaking. The Lakers went on to lose the series, but instead of being down and out, he worked hard and got better.  The very next year he won an NBA championship.  The Lakers went on to win 3 NBA championships in a row. 

You must want success even if it means missing the game winning shot just like Kobe or if it means knowing we may fail, and facing that same fear head on.   We must be fearless when there is adversity.  Success will not come to us on a silver platter.  Just like this high school diploma.  It didn’t come without hard work.  Our teachers didn’t say we were guaranteed to graduate.  We had to study, show up to school and do our homework.  But we did it, so graduates give yourselves a pat on the back. 

We must also not be satisfied with just this high school diploma.  We have to want more because we deserve more.  We deserve a college education. We deserve all of our dreams and aspirations. I’m glad to say 100% of our class is attending college.  Not many high schools can say that.  We are future doctors, engineers, teachers, and the leaders of tomorrow. 

Thank you Damien for laying the foundation for our futures success. I’m proud to be a part of this graduating class. We each have the ability to make something of ourselves. So I challenge each graduate to leave your mark in the history and make a difference in the world. Good luck with all your future endeavors. Just remember whichever course in life you take, you will always be a Damien man. Work hard, play hard. Peace out. Deuces. Viriliter Age. Act manfully. 

Watch a video of the speech:

About the author: Scott Dona is Damien Memorial School’s 2011 valedictorian. He spoke during the 46th commencement exercises at Blaisdell Concert Hall for the all-boys Catholic school. There were 100 graduates and all of them are moving on to college with $3.4 million in scholarships.