Be Cool... Stay in School!
In the eighth grade, I was student-body president of Erwin Middle School in Asheville. I considered this quite an ____1____ since there were over 1,000 students in the school. At the end of the year, I was asked to make a speech at the ceremony where my class was ____2____ to high school. I knew this had to be more than just the brief comments a student might ____3____ give. We’re the class of Millennium (千禧年), ____4____ I wanted my speech to be as special as we were.
I spent several nights lying in bed, ____5____ about what to say. Many things crossed my mind, but none of them ____6____ all my classmates. Then one night, it ____7____ me. Erwin High School has the highest ____8____ rate of any high school in our county. What better goal could we have than for every single one of us to ____9____?
The speech I gave on graduation day was only 12 minutes long, but what it started was ____10____. When I announced the challenge to my classmates, the entire audience, including the parents and teachers, broke into applause. As I showed the personalized certificates and signs each student would get, I could ____11____ they were really excited. I’d had no idea my challenge would bring this kind of ____12____.
Throughout the summer, I worked on developing a program to carry our ____13____ into high school. I gave speeches to local clubs and groups. I also ____14____ a “Dropout Patrol”, made up of students who would be willing to help and support other students during bad times.
Then word began to ____15____ about our challenge. I appeared on local television, and calls started coming in from everywhere. Businesses are throwing their ____16____ behind us. We have banks, furniture stores, restaurants and more where we can get discounts for our entire family when we show our “Dropout Patrol” ID cards.
All this was ____17____, because we are just starting a difficult four-year journey, but we have already made a significant ____18____. Last year, 13 kids dropped out of the freshman class. So far this year, not a single person who signed the commitment has ____19____, and the “Dropout Patrol” has become the largest organized group in the school.
The Erwin High “Committed Class of Millennium” would like to encourage your class to start a ____20____ like ours. Wouldn’t it be great if the entire class of Millennium, nationwide, had a 100 percent graduation rate?