001Hi everyone again. Are we ready to begin? Okay, let me hear you make some noise. I am so excited about this. We have a very special guest presenter. Now, I want us all to take a look at this video. James says, "My challenge is communicating with 5 to 600 engineers. I interact a lot. My job is to make sure there are safe flights." Deaf actress in Hollywood Studios, nothing has stopped them from entertaining people around the world. Even this deaf clown has given countless nightly shows in Las Vegas. Joel loves to meet different people and cherish their own country's sign language. He loves to immerse in their daily lives and culture and share their stories with you all. No matter where he goes throughout his travels, he soars. There are truly no barriers for the
002intrepid. Let Joel show you the way. Let's Let's a round of applause to Joel Barish. Deaf culture, we have to hug, not high five, right? Okay, hi everybody. If this is my first time being here at PSD, oh my goodness. I've been to Arizona, but never on this campus, so wonderful thank you to our sponsor Sorenson and to PSD for inviting me to come talk to you all. My sign name looks like this. It looks like jumping. Why do you think my sign name is Joel? Because when I was growing up, I didn't have a sign name. It was just j o e l, right? But in America, we've got four letters, right? J o e l. And if you're four or less, like my brother Jed, j e d, we just spell it. If
003you get five letters or more, you get a name sign. But as I traveled the globe, I've been to 103 nations and people say, "Oh my god, ASL, you spell too much. Enough with the finger spelling." But what can I do? I was never given a name sign until the year 2016, when amongst my travels as a way to respect people from around the world, I thought, "Why not? I'm jumping all over the world." So, that's my name sign. Your name sign has to have a purpose, right? So, I'm here to talk about deaf people from all around the world and in my travels, what I've experienced. Before 1995, I met a woman who was deaf here and who thought that there were no deaf people around the world, that deaf people were only in
004America. We all know that that's not true, but that It me think. Growing up, watching TV, when I saw travel shows, they were all hearing, they were all speaking, there was no international signing, right? And so that made me decide I wanted to be a world traveler, because deaf people are everywhere. Some Sometimes people think that, oh well, there's there's no deaf people in over there, maybe there's no deaf people who live in the caves. Oh, yeah, they do. I promise, they're all over. This is my brother, Jed. He's deaf. I was the um founder of DeafNation. And the purpose of DeafNation is this. Last year we held in Mesa our DeafNation Expo, and that's been 21 years of these Expo events all over, so that businesses can set up their wares to share, plus
005you could work for the government, you could set up a private company, you could work for a school. We've got deaf people running and leading businesses. And so I set up this Expo as a way to share all of that information, and admittance is free. I don't ask for any money. I just ask that you support our deaf economy and deaf businesses. And that is called the deaf ecosystem. Where we're supporting each other. Why would we not to reject them, but why would we put our money into hearing businesses first? We should support deaf businesses. Now to talk about my travels. So, anyone know where this is, or what the name of this country is? This is the name of a country. It's in Asia or in Africa, rather. Starts with an N. Not Nigeria.
006Nepal. Starts with an N. This is the shape of the country. I wish that America was able to have the same type of sign so that I could show you exactly where I live in America. But, alas. This is Namibia. And they are famous for their head dresses. And unfortunately, they were saying, "Well, I can't do it. I can't do it because I'm deaf." And I was like, "No, no, no, this isn't true." So, I went in my 4x4 and I went traveling out into the the bush and I found this deaf family. Typically, they do not have western-style clothing. They wear their cultural clothing, but deaf people can communicate with each other across language barriers, right? Hearing people who speak English and speak Mandarin are just at an impasse, but when deaf people from
007around the world meet each other, it doesn't matter. We're somehow able to communicate through our gestures. And so, that's what I did. We started gesturing, and if you want to watch the video of how that works, there's videos online, but any language, a deaf person just has to go to school first, right? But, this person never went to school, which broke my heart. So, they were I went and gathered some food and some gifts to give to this deaf person just to bless them. This is in Mongolia. Does anyone know the sign for Mongolia? The name of the country is Mongolia. Does anyone know where Mongolia is? Yeah, China. China. Good good geography teachers. Awesome. So, it's uh just north of where China is at. This was in 2007 before smartphones. Who has smartphones now?
008Everybody. Right? Everybody has smartphones. But before, we didn't have smartphones. So, I had to email and look for deaf people and I was told, "No, there's no deaf people in Mongolia." But I was stubborn and I refused to give up and finally I found a deaf family. So, this was an older woman who was 71 who had never met another deaf person for 71 years. So, I went in my 4x4, traveled 6 hours on a one-lane highway out into the middle of nowhere to find this person. And I was told, "Over the mountains, over there, in a hut." And I found the home. The home The sign for home in Mongolia looks like this. It looks like this. Uh just the roof of the house. That's right. The sign has a symbol attached to it
009and has a purpose. So, whether you're using American Sign Language, LSM, or Gestuno, or any sort of international sign, every sign can be symbolic, but they have different sign languages across every country. Even in state to state. Uh some people say hour differently. Um but let's not criticize each other. We've got to stop that. Anyways, back to my point. So, I found a hut. The shape of the hut looked like this. And there's no free no such thing as a free person in the world. There's no free anything in the world. Do you think that this was free? Uh maybe it was $100, maybe it was $500. For the land, how much do you think that they paid for the land? Well, they didn't have to pay for it. They had to find it. So,
010they had to find the land and work the land. Do you think they had running water? No, sir. There's a picture here with a well in it. It's actually not a well, it's a tank. So, it's not a well that's drilled into the ground, but rather this woman would travel with this tank about a mile and a half and scoop the water from the water source into the tank. And then that would become their source of water. If you want water, what do you do? You turn on a faucet, right? Very easily. But they have to travel to get their water. They told me welcome. They do have bunnies there. But the sign that I'm showing you, what do you think it means? Welcome into our house. Because this looks like a door, and you
011have to go under the door. And have a cup of horse milk first as a cultural custom of respect. I remember my brother saying, "Oh, no." But this woman got so mad at the rejection. And she signed this. Can anyone guess what that means? What do you think? Your guest, or ghost rather. Ghost. So my brother wasn't allowed to partake. You have to respect their culture first in other countries before we can do any sort of business. This with the magnifying glass is from a glasses that had broken 20 years ago. For us, if our glasses break, we go to the doctor, get a new one pretty quickly. But keep in mind, this family had never seen another deaf person until I arrived. I pulled up a laptop and showed them deaf people dancing, deaf
012people farming. So this was in 2007. And I've met over 5,000 people throughout my world travels and I'm still in contact with all of them. I don't leave their country and then blow them off. But some of them have no phones, have no easy way of communication. But this little boy at that time uh the family had limited resources and were trying to decide what to do. And now this is him. Hello, Joel. When I was 9 years old, I met you. You were the first deaf person in our home. I was surprised to meet another deaf person. Joel told me to go to school and get an education. I went to school far from home, but I kept his advice. When he left Mongolia, I started getting an education. And I got vocational training
013at the school. I got better career opportunities because of Joel's advice. Changed my life. I thank you from my heart. Thank you, Joel. So long. Now he's a manager at KFC. What do you go to school for? An education, but why? Why do you need education? We need to know the real world, right? Learn our life. Plus, become independent. To be financially independent, but also independent for yourselves. If he The family was thinking about, you know, we're strapped for money and we need to send our son 8 hours away at school. He kept that advice in mind. We kept in touch and his career and his life has exploded. If I never made that financial investment to try to send him to school, I don't know that that would have happened. If you have two
014choices, one path could be good and one path could be bad. We have to think about what you're going to do after graduation. Will PSD take care of you after graduation? No, my friends. You are like little birds that will have to learn how to fly out of the nest and you will make your own decisions. You're in a tough competitive world now. Just like when you go to the mall, if you see a little deaf kid signing, go up to them and say, "Do you go to a deaf school? Are your parents learning sign language?" Tell them to come to PDSD, right? So that they can grow and thrive and about themselves. In the city only 400 people live there and yet I found a deaf person. There is deaf people everywhere. Sure enough,
015in Botswana, Africa, down at the bottom of Africa, he was selling arts on the side of the street. There's deaf artists all around the globe and in my house I have deaf art from all around the world like a museum. My sister has said I shouldn't put it throughout the whole house because my house is not a museum, just my office. But I bought two pieces of art worth $300. He was so happy. Can anyone guess why? Deaf buying from deaf artists. Money, right? He got some money from it. Supporting deaf businesses. He could live. Supporting his culture. He usually earns $150 a month. $150 in a day is a good day, right? We could easily spend $150 in a day. So, for him to earn $300 in a day when he usually earns $150
016in a month is a good day for him. He was very excited. We've got airplane mechanics who are deaf. People who work on the turbines under the wings. Within those fans are what's called blades, just like a razor blade. So, within those turbines are 24 or more blades. The big ones are up to 32. But the deaf folks have to make sure that they're safe for the airplanes to fly. The gentleman who has one arm worked as a mechanic on the back of the airplane. And the back of the airplane has a rotor that goes back and forth, kind of like a tail, right? And as you change the tail direction, you change the direction that the airplane goes in. And there's a deaf mechanic who works on that part of the airplane. There's Boeing,
017huge, huge company here in the Southwest states, and also in Canada, who has a degree in airplane engineering who's deaf. And we thought, why shouldn't we record him? Why shouldn't we film him to show that deaf people could do anything they want to? And his boss was a little hesitant at first, but then ended up hiring more and more deaf people. If you find yourself in a situation with an employer who's hesitant to take a chance on you, you can prove that deaf people can do anything, and that help helps other people come in after you, too. This is in Bali. Sometimes, when we go to other countries, we need to buy clothes, and it's important for me to buy from deaf-owned businesses for those clothes. And I bought this outfit from a deaf-owned clothing
018business. It's important when you travel to respect other cultures in order to be getting respect back. Teaching is not an easy job. It's important to make sure that you respect your teachers in order to get respect back. It's a two-way street. I would love to have one student, Ducati. Where's Ducati? Oh, he's a little scared now. Ducati. Oh, Ducati. Oh, I messed up your sign name. I'm sorry. What's your sign name? Uh, why is it Ducati? Ducati, it's named after a motorcycle. So, we just took that and and matched it. Oh, okay. Do you ride motorcycles? Me? No. Are you going to? Someday. If not, then we're going to have to change your sign name. Right. This is in Africa. I want you to take a look at this video and try to interpret it
019just for fun. What did he say you think? Um, he said he had about nine uh, one of these or strawberries. Um, and he went to go pick I mean, I think he's saying cow and he milks a cow. I'm lost, honestly. Ah. 10, well, two hands up, what do you think? He said this with the thumb or pinky down. Okay, 10. Two hands means 10. This sign on the nose, what do you think means? Farm? Ah, farm. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. So, 10 farms. They have nine farms and then they go and pick the specific one to come bring back. They picked a specific one from one farm and they milked something a cow on the farm and then they made milk or CHEESE OR SOMETHING. OOH, HE'S GETTING CLOSE. OKAY. SO, this
020means we have 10 farms who all work together. I don't milk them, but once we get the milk, I stir. What do you think stir? Cheese? Is he making cheese? Ooh, he's making cheese. That's what that sign means is cheese. Oh, It's French sign language. So, it's it's kind of close to ASL, a little bit easy for us to get, but you can't think so rigid in your ASL, right? I'll I'll give you a little sticker. This is from a deaf artist, deaf business, a sticker and a magnet for you being brave enough to come on stage and try. Thank you. Don't think of to yourself that you can't understand or can't do anything. You can. Take a chance and try. It's okay to make mistakes. No one is perfect. We learn by making mistakes.
021I still make mistakes every day. That is his round of cheese, 75 lb. He's been making cheese for over 30 years. This is in another country. Is it in Asia? In Africa. Or Africa? Starts with a T. Oh, this sign in other countries is a is a bad word. Okay? So, we do this for Tanzania. This is a deaf school taught by a deaf teacher, um and there were some deaf blind students or deaf with low vision students, and so we went up to get right into their face and say, "Hi." Was that the right way to do things, to sign that close from her face? So, what I did instead, out of respect, I didn't interrupt, but rather offered a different idea. And I said, "Hey, let me interact with her." And I started
022and I initiated contact. Why do you think that was? To inform that I'm here, right? A physical tactile response of "Hi, I'm right here." And so, I started signing, "Hi, I'm Joel." And we spent 5 minutes chatting back and forth, and the teacher was so surprised. It was easy to communicate because we had that tactile response. I didn't insult them and say, "You're doing it wrong. Let me show you how to do it better." Rather, I just modeled what I thought was the best way to do it. So, don't be mean to or disrespectful to other people. This is a quick video with meerkats. They're very soft. Do you think I'm in a zoo? No, I'm out in the wild. Got up at 4:00 in the morning and went on a safari and patiently laid
023down and waited. They started climbing up on me. And their eyeballs remind me of deaf people because why do they look around from side to side to side? They're looking in their environment always. Not just for lions, but what are they looking for? They're looking for birds or eagles or Yeah. Right? They're looking up there for birds of prey. And then they communicate with everybody to go hide. And that reminds me of our deaf community because we always had our have our eyes open looking for everything in our horizon and we work together. If someone were to harm the deaf community, what would we do? We would band together and resist and protest and say, "No, these are our rights." And we would fight back. Same things applied to these meerkats. All right. I have
024so much more I could go into, but I have 2 minutes left on my clock, so I will stop there. If you want to see videos or any other information, there's my contact. Thank you so much to Sorenson for sponsoring me and for inviting me. Please make sure that you graduate from PSD and when now that I'm here, I will be in contact with you. Um I'm so thankful for Fremont School for the Deaf because if I didn't have my deaf education, I would not be here. So remember your friends that you make now because they will be lifelong friends and family for you, too. All right. Much love. Thank you. Thank you. All right. What What do you think that we need to have a special a chant for Joel? Are you guys ready?
025THANK YOU. GOOD JOB. I'M SO EXCITED. YES, do we have questions? Oh, Joel. Would you like Some students would like to get your autograph if that's okay. Yes. All right, he'll be here for autographs later. All right. Thank you again. Thank you so much, Joel. So, today we have a celebration. We are celebrating achievements, successes, and soon graduation. Who's ready? Yes! Okay. Hey, can we bring the lights up a little? Okay, I would like to introduce Michelle Kelly. Yes, can we get a light on in this area? We don't have one? Okay. Okay. Okay. We have our assistant principals here. I don't think they're here at right this moment. They are helping with um another situation. However, you know both our assistant principals, Flint and Sabre. And I want to introduce Okay, Michelle, go ahead.
026And before we start, it is now 1:10. So, it's important that teachers and staff keep their comments short and sweet so that we can move this along because we have a long list of awards, and I'm excited for you all to receive those. So, now before I introduce the next person, um the seniors, where are the seniors? Raise your hand. Really, give yourself a round of applause, seniors. You are graduating. So, we have started something special for seniors, and that's going to be next. So, if Scott, if you would come on up. Woah, that is a bright light. Okay. Anyways, my name is Scott Madsen. I am the CTE director for the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and Blind. I oversee both campuses um here as well in Tucson. Like Michelle just mentioned, wow,
027all of our achievements and our next climb, they all look different. And we want to recognize some of those that go into careers or go into college, whichever you choose, we want to recognize that. Go ahead. Yeah, GO AHEAD AND WATCH. AGAIN, WOW. 26 seniors that are graduating and into their next steps. We want to honor part of your journey and if you're curious to see what's next. Let's hold on 1 second while I maneuver the PowerPoints. Um Angel and Leslie, you guys can click into the drive. Yeah. Hi. Oh my god. Are you guys good? Just give us 1 more second. Technical technical issues. Okay, Scott. Scott. Do you want to go ahead and introduce I'm so sorry. Scott sat down so soon. So, we need you to come back up. All right. Me
028again. Um I wanted to call Silva and Ducati up to the stage. Thank you. You guys kind of match with your photos. I wanted to bring them up because both of these two students have taken Metro Tech classes in floral design and fashion design, but they've gotten their industrial certificate. She Silva passed her ICEV in floral design and he passed his certification that takes two years to do, took the test and passed his fashion design technical skills assessment, but also has the seal of biliteracy, which will be on his diploma. So, what a great honor for these two. We wanted to recognize their achievements. Congratulations. Am I done now for real? Okay. Yes, you're done. All right, next we have scholarships and we'll begin with scholarships on who is getting these awards for different various
029reasons. All right, we have Gallaudet Alumni Association Valley of the Sun Chapter. We have Bonnell Amon. Hi. Hello. I'm Bonnell Amon and I am a board member of the Gallaudet University Alumni Association for the Valley of the Sun Chapter that's here in Phoenix. And if you can believe it, I graduated from Gallaudet in 1970, which is how many years ago? 54 years ago. And many of you are going to Gallaudet this fall, which makes me so excited. I am here to present a scholarship to a student who really deserves it. This scholarship will help them with finances and expenses for Gallaudet in the fall. So, Michelle said keep it short, so I'm going to try. Um this person I just I wish we had money for every single one of you nine who applied, but
030I have to pick one unfortunately. But this one I don't know, maybe later we'll have money, but this one student who was the winner is Ducati. Ducati, please come. You seniors should congratulate him. And please, I want to see you next year too at graduation. Congratulations. Make us all proud. We'll do. Oh wait, we need a picture. Take a picture of me. Mary Ann, I don't know your password. Hang on. All right, thank you, tech guru. Thank you, thank you. All right, next we'll have the Delta Zeta Phoenix alumni. And we have Natalie Scha- Shade and Lorna Green. Hi. I'm Natalie with Delta Zeta Alumni Group here in Phoenix. And we've been giving scholarships to Phoenix School for the Deaf um since you all started doing that in the '80s. Um we had so many
031applicants this year. We were so excited. We're able to award five scholarships this year. So, they're $1,000 each and be able to use those at the university you're attending, a trade school, any type of further education. Um and the money's we raise come from our alumni group and they come from our college campus here at ASU with a Delta Zeta there. They raise money for us to um give to speech and hearing, which is our philanthropy. So, um it's my honor to present the scholarships and I'll call your names out. Silva. I don't know how to say your last name. The second one goes to Pearl Williams. The third one goes to Sarah Duncan. Our fourth scholarship goes to Arhelia Rojas. And the final one goes to Sophia Twanken. CONGRATULATIONS AND THERE'S instructions in the
032envelope on how to redeem your scholarships. So. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. I'm going to take a picture. Can we get a picture? Okay. Get up a little bit. All right. Congrat- I'm so proud I'm so proud. Yes. Absolutely proud of all of them. All right, next we have Phoenix Deaf Women Organization, Kathy Say. Before I speak, I do want to say congratulations to all of our seniors. It's such an exciting time. You're starting your new journeys. I'm here representing Phoenix Deaf Women's Organization. My name is Kathy Say. I am the chair of that organization. We call it PDWO. We've been in established for 32 years, so that's a long time. PDWO focuses on supporting women in their education, in having fun. We host workshops and lots of activities and games. As a board, we
033discussed and it was a tough decision because we had so many awesome applicants this year. We have chosen five for this year and after much deliberation, we picked two winners. Um and again, all five applicants, congratulations. You guys were so amazing, but we could only pick two. First is Sophia Tonkin. Second is Pearl Williams. Your certificates are right there. Ladies, we will I will do want a picture with you, but also here are your envelopes. Keep that. Congratulations to both of you. Thank you. Thank you. After we're done, I'll reach out to you and we'll follow up, okay? We'll chat, but first picture. Wait, wait, wait. Can we do one more? We want to do one more. Never mind, never mind, never mind. Too late. The moment's over. There she went. All right. I know
034um the Optimist Club just finished and we know who won. It was Sandrine, but she's not here today, but I did wanted to show you how proud we are of her with this beautiful plaque that we had gifted her. Yeah, and $2,500. Yep, a $2,500 scholarship to apply that will apply to Gallaudet. Wow. Wow, that was a lot of hard work. Every year we have Optimist Club competitions. Please, if you haven't done it come What are you waiting for? Come on. Yes, we will gift it Indio to bring home. I'll wait for Yeah, if you can give that to Indio if Oh, or Natalie, if you can pick that up, please. All right, now let's do the special applaud. Are you guys ready? Ready? Clap, clap, clap. Okay. Now we'll have Matt with John. I'm
035looking up and I see how far the top of the mountain is. Oh, those three students, who are they? I don't know. These students started here and they've reached and they climbed to the top of this mountain for math, this math mountain. Who are those three students that got the math um accolades and survived that mountain climbing all the way up. And those three students as they journeyed up, it's not easy. It was a challenge. They struggled. A lot of patience and perseverance. And it's not only with academics. There's other barriers as well with social and in their life that came at them. The snow, just trekking through that those challenges and as they're carefully going up to the top. Reaching that top mountain, these three students are They've worked really well in math class.
036So, they've done well in gaining their skills with uh assessments and showing their work. Those accomplishments are for these three students. Ada Marice Leslie and Arhelia. Are you guys ready? Thank you guys so much. You may be seated. All right. We will have Caleb and Trish next for English. So this student is just an expert author. Every single day this student impressed me with their word choices, with their knowledge of vocabulary, and also with their love for editing their writing. So I decided to award Miracle. Congratulations. Oh, you're going to stay? Okay. This is my first time, guys. I've never seen this before. Okay. This next student impressed me when I would assign them a creative writing task. I require three paragraphs, but this student would write this intense story every time. I loved the
037characters they wrote, and not only fictional stories, but also non-fiction, too. This student is Genesis. That's our future author award. This next student every day asked me such good questions and is just a curious person. Wants to know everything about the world. When I assigned short stories, this student wanted to do more reading about that topic. So, I'm awarding them the wonder award. And that is Francesco Yousef. Congratulations. Let's do our chant. Get back up. Get back up. We all need a picture. For your dad. He wants to see it. Okay. Hi, this is my first Oh, my first award is for the student that is excellent when they come in. They get to work. They meet my expectation. And this first award is for most excellent in English. It is Phoenix. Next, we have
038one student who is very very focused and determined to learn. They practice at home, they work really hard, and they're always they're just always working hard. This person is Sarah. The last award I have is for this senior that is very very kind. Always is sweet, supportive of other people. He's willing to do anything. This student is Max. Wait. Are you ready? I have it ready. Oop, our chant. Don't forget our chant. Next we have Mary Ann. Hello everyone. Oh my gosh, I wish I could give an award to everyone. All of you have worked so hard and are so very deserving. But I could only pick, well, one per award. I have three awards, though. Um this one is one who is always so impressive. This student was not always happy in my class,
039was overwhelmed because it was hard, and would sometimes go to the principal and say, "I need tutoring. Maybe I need to withdraw from Mary Ann's financial literacy class. It's too much." But that student and I worked together, and finally can you believe it? That student has an A in class and is my overachiever award, and wants more work, and is not satisfied with the work I'm giving her in class. This student is phenomenal, and I am so proud of Angel Ye. Angel, where is is Angel? Oh. Okay, I'll make sure she gets that, yeah. For you. I'm so happy you stayed in my class. This award is for our self-starter. And that But I want it to be next to Angel so she can see me. See, okay. So, this is a self-starter award. This
040person is really amazing. They show up to class. They know as a senior what they want to do as far as applying for colleges. She's the first person who started the application process for college and only need a little bit of my help and really threw me for a loop than all the other students saw, "Oh my gosh, she's already applied for it." And then she started the domino effect. And that is Sarah Duncan. Okay. This next award goes to my most outstanding student. This student was phenomenal. Would get to class and start working right away and was focused on completing all of her work. Doesn't like to miss any deadlines. And if they thought they might miss a deadline, I would ask, "Can I do this at home?" And I would say, "Of course,
041sure." Was always happy in my class and we saw so much growth this year for communication. Before it was hard and now we have this two-way communication that's so impressive. And that is Leslie. Leslie Aguilar. Congratulations. Come stand here for a photo. Okay, we're going to take a picture. Look over here. Thank you. Next we'll have Emma. Come on up, Emma. Okay. This year my theme was important for people to be in history {slash} world history. One of my English classes, one is for social studies. So, first do you guys know who Pete Conrad is? Do you know Pete Conrad? He is the astronaut from the Apollo 12. He was the captain. This man took it very seriously. He was a comedian He was a comedian. He would always joke a lot. And people would
042look at him and say, "You're in an You're you're You're in a rocket. You're you're an astronaut. Take it serious." So, he has a high award. He was a high-rank in the Navy. He had many many awards. Um with NASA, he developed a lot of different programs. And people would same hesitant because he was very loud and very social. However, he really made an impact. And the same thing with this student on the senior club for the senior class. Now, I want to recognize Louise. Okay, this next award is for another comedian. Do you guys know who Harpo Marx is? He's an old guy. I know. I get it. You probably never seen it cuz he's old. It's black and white films. But, movie with his brother, they would It was silent film. There was
043no talking. He would be the only one that didn't speak. He would do gestures. He would have different costumes and different jackets. He was super funny, but he you can depend on him. In a situation, there was a meet a moment where they needed something and he always was prepared. He would make people feel included, make people happy. He was a good person and it made things interesting. Make people pay attention more and laugh, which is most important. And this is another senior. I'm sorry, my freshman, junior, and senior or sophomores, but it is Travis. And if you haven't watched the movie, that is your homework to go and watch this Harpo Marx movie. All right, this is for my English class and I'm sorry to the interpreters. I do not know how to pronounce
044this name. It's very hard, but it is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Do you guys know who that is? It's a really good author. Their work is amazing. The themes with feminism, with different cultures, supporting each other, supporting other people. This person, wow, they really made an impact on their community. Um it was a big part of their country to become very famous. And this person is on the top of the game. It's another senior and this is for Pearl. It's uh you should watch her TED Talk. That is your homework as well to watch this her TED Talk. To watch her TED Talk and see this amazing person. I wish I could give out more, but that is all the awards I have to give today. Congratulations. Now, our Ed Options Facilitators. No awards, but I
045did want to make a comment. This was my first time facilitating our online classes, and math is not my strong suit. I'll tell you that. But, I kept a positive attitude and kept going, and I'm so impressed with all of you who took online offerings. It's not easy. There's a lot of research, a lot of background knowledge, and so I wanted to applaud those of you who kept going and persevered. I'm really proud of you. I just wanted to say that. Right. It was wonderful to have a team for Ed Options, right? But, first we have to thank our teachers and those who are not teaching the class that they want to, but are willing to work with us online, and those who helped last semester. You started this to grow, and then this semester
046we were able to just enjoy working with all of you. And I'm sure that you all have decided to climb the mountain, too, right? I can't make you climb. You have to decide to set the goal of finishing your courses and getting your credits, and doing everything that you need to do in order to meet those requirements for graduation in a single semester. I have to applaud you. Those of you who took Ed Options online classes, you should put pat yourselves on the back, not me. Congratulations and thank you. All right, Jessica. Hi everyone, I'm Jessica. I teach DVE DVE and digital journalism. First, I want to focus on these two students for the yearbook. This first student I saw their work and their progress with photos. And wow, I wish I could start earlier
047with them, but it's never too late and you can continue next year and you can ask me to use the camera. And that person is Giselle. Giselle. I wish I could give more awards to all of my students, but again, this was a small group this year for the yearbook. This next student, wow, all year they were creative from beginning until now. And this is called the layout design award. This one this student did a different a creative designs for the yearbook. And this award goes to Genesis. All right. Now, this was for digital video editing and now we're going to digital editing. editing. So, we have a small a small group of students that joined us and now I was able to pick this one particular student that helped me with a project called
048plumbing video. And as we were hurrying to rushing to get this edited, this person persevered. This goes to Giselle. All right, you ready? Oh, we're going to take a picture. All right, let's do our chant. Ready? Come on. Bye. All right, next up is our PE. We've got Scott and Michael. Hi, my name's Scott and I'm a PE teacher. Mike's not here, he had to teach class, but he asked me if I would present everything and I said, "Okay." So, we had to filter out everyone cuz PE is tough. It's tough to pick awards for PE, but I picked five. The first PE award is for the physical education award. Um someone who knows all of the terminology, can take a test, and usually I give out tests and they're like, wait, what? But really
049study and they know and they memorize all of the important words, right? We know that physical education is important. Without this knowledge, how would you apply it to the real world? So anyways, this award goes to Joseph Trent. Okay. This next award is called the best all around PE award. Best all around means that they have great behavior. They're committed. They work hard. There's no challenges. They are happy to work and they do what they need to do to learn and listen and make good progress. This requires a lot of that person. This person, when I call everyone, let's get ready to go, they're the first one there and ready to learn. I never have to ask this person to focus. That person's always on time. And that is Genesis. See how she ran? She's
050so fast, you guys. This next award is another all around in phys ed for a boy. This person is so high achieving. He's got the most energy. He reminds me of me when I was a boy. And as I've grown up, I have less energy, but being around him, I have more energy thanks to him. He loves PE. He's excited. He always brings his uniform. He works hard. He's committed. This is I mean one time during PE he fell and broke his face and even with blood on his face was like I'm still going to play and we were so impressed with that person and that's Koutou. We've got three awards. We've got two left. These two are the refuse to give up in PE. That means that this person wasn't crazy about PE. Wasn't
051really their thing. I don't know maybe but seemed like it. This but this person refused to give up and made it work. And me and Michael taught those movement skills and we learned how to move around and that person is Leslie Aguilar. Congratulations. And the last one is the refuse to give up in PE award again. This person oh they went through so many frustrations and struggles not understanding some of the rules or the movements and it took so much time and energy and we said stay with us don't give up. Sure enough we made it through and throughout the year we've seen such a huge improvement. We can see it in this attitude, too, and that goes to Christian Franco Ramirez. Christian. Good job. All right, let's take a photo. Good job. All right,
052next we'll have Mel. Oh, Mel couldn't be here, but she did uh film a video um and I will uh announce these three awards. So, this person This award is going for ASL teacher stu- storytelling. They would act like a teacher. I'm really impressed with this student. They always want to pour on how when I'm showing them a list and they copy, then they help other students as well. And when I look at that, I was super impressed and they all looked up to him, as well. As an ASL teacher, I believe that they would become an ASL teacher. And that student is Jose. Jose Toribio. Oh, Angel's not here today, but we want to congratulate him. All right, the second award. I want to give this award to this student who is most improved
053in ASL. Wow, when they first started they were very hesitant. They didn't want to show their sign. As we encouraged and provided support, they began to pick up the language. They would film themselves and I'm in awe on how well they sign. There's been a huge improvement. And this student is Jesus Gallegos. Come on up, Jesus. Mel very happy and she's said that she couldn't be here to give this to you, but here's your award. All right, this third award. This student or this award is called the ASL Storytelling Expert. This student would sign, film themselves, tell their story, doing rhythm, hand shapes. Once they would send their video to the national story competition, she got an honorable mention and this student is Giselle. Yeah. All good? Congratulations, you two. All right, ready for our
054chant? Oh, let's take our photo first. All right, ready? Oh, one more. Okay. Next, we have transition to work. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. Let's get that spirit going. All right. We are the transition team. Well, except for Jessica. She's replacing Julius. And you stand here. The first award is for the most determined. This is the person who is a really hard worker. I'm really impressed with this person. They're really committed to working hard. This person is Sarah Vasquez. Congratulations. Up top. All right. Oh, bright light. Woo! Hey, guys. What's up? All All This next student throughout this year, I mean, this guy was finished with credits, right? Could have graduated early. He could have said, "All right, hurry up. Let's go." Uh second semester, he was done, right? So, we had to think
055about what do we do with him? And he wanted to go get a job. He was thinking and looking about what colleges he was going to go to. And he was just such a self-starter. This is most motivated award, and that goes to Anthony Flores. Hi everyone. I'm so happy to see you. This person is the ambassador of curiosity award. As a job coach, I found myself having to do more research to get them started on their journey, and it goes to Luis. Stop. Luis is so hungry for information. He wants to know everything. I'm going to miss you guys so much. No Luis, no comedian. Come on, let's take a picture. But a what? Vogue. Wait. Achievement. WE CAN DO OUR PET PET CLAP. WOO! ALL RIGHT, O D D. We have Mike come
056into the stage. Hi, we are the Odd Squad. O D D. Uh one part of our work you guys might know. You guys probably know Robin. She couldn't be here today because does anyone know why? Why isn't she here? It's her birthday. It's her birthday. So we said, "Okay, you can celebrate your birthday." But when Robin comes back, you tell her happy birthday, okay? And she'll be like, "How did you guys know?" Anyways, Okay, back to the point. We're focused on what? So many tests, right? You guys took so many tests this year. Test after test after test. What tests did you guys take this year? Who can name them? ACT, what's another one? MAP, right? What other tests? English tests, AASA, AZ science. Oh my gosh, the list goes on. So many tests, right?
057But we wanted to honor two students who worked really hard on tests and some tests take so long. They take forever, right? And they weren't just clicking through the test. They worked really hard and so we wanted to acknowledge and recognize those students. That's Leslie. And who's the second one? Angel. Angel Ye. She's like, "Wait, what? Me?" Yes, ma'am. Angel, too. You and Angel. She's coming right there. Congratulations, my friend. Up top. Let's take a picture. I think Mary Ann's got it. And we cheer for you. Thanks, guys. Coming up, Jeff. Yes. Hi, everyone. I'm Jeff, the athletic director. Wanted to let you guys know in sports this year in fall, winter, spring season. All of these athletes athletes, we wanted I know that they finished their season and we had our banquet and we
058gave them their awards, but this award specifically will be for participation addition to the recognition. We have the Roadrunner three award, which means athletes who are involved in three sports this year. Meaning involved in the fall, winter, and spring. And they participated in three sports, not two, three. So, these students are listed here. Come on up if you see your name. ALL RIGHT. YOU GUYS, WE always have our tradition, remember? All right, our next is Roadrunner four award, meaning the student athlete that's involved in the same sport for four times. So, four with one sport for four years. So, they played volleyball for all four years in high school, we would recognize them for that achievement. There is one athlete who was involved in three different sports for the Roadrunner four. These students are are
059the student is Anthony Flores. Yeah. Perfect. All right. This next award is for the Roadrunner 12 Award. This award means that they were involved in high school sports, really for seniors that were involved in 12 sports through their 12 years in school. Through their high high school years, I'm sorry. So, these three They This person was in three sports, and this student award goes to He was involved in football. He was involved in track and field and basketball. So, again, he did those all four years, so he achieved the 12 award. This one award is for our athletic departments that we're really proud of. This is the Mr. and Miss Roadrunner Award. It's decided by the coaches. They all discuss and I know it was tough to make the decision, but we picked one boy,
060one girl. And it's based on the student themselves and how they are as athletes as well. So, during their leadership, how they are in the classroom, how they support their team, good sportsmanship, involved, encouraging others. So, we've decided on these two students. Francesco and Arhelia. All right, our chant. All right. Now is the student life. So, that's organizations, clubs, and all my goodness, this year was such a challenge because so many of you were in academic bowl or international studies or Oh my gosh, what am I missing? Uh classes, fundraisers, all of it. So, now I wanted to recognize a couple folks. The class of 2024 sponsors are Emma and Gunnar. Hey seniors. Hey seniors. Are you guys tired? You guys still alive? Yeah, they seem tired. My coffee is finally kicking in, so I'm
061ready to go. I'm awake. I don't know about them. All right, we're going to do our seniors. Yes. So, this I mean, we could have awarded all of our seniors, but we just we couldn't award all of our seniors, but we had to pick one who I mean, since the last 3 years, since we were selected to be your sponsors, have just been so amazing, really impressive. We've been so impressed with this student. I mean, like they have really helped with planning, with representation. academics are out of this world, right? going to Metro Tech, all of the different areas. I mean, what a great representative of PDSD. I'm looking forward to their future. Um, they're a great role model for our younger kids. Definitely. And the house system and everything, we were so impressed with
062this student. Do you want to announce? I I mean, I've done three already. This award goes to Silva. Are they here? Silva. Yes, we are proud of you. Wake up, y'all. They need Starbucks or something. Like, we need a They need a Starbucks stop or something. Yeah. Picture, picture, picture. Come here. Who's taking the picture? is? This one over here, Anne Marie Anne. CONGRATULATIONS. WOOP WOOP. CLASS OF 2025 sponsors. Kitty and Renee will come to the stage. First I want to say thank you. Our juniors have had a rocky road. It's been kind of tough. So I wanted to thank you all, all your junior all the juniors for all your hard work. And welcome Kitty. Hey-o. Our new uh I'm your new sponsor. Yes. She recently just joined and she had some ideas on
063who to pick this specific student for this year and possibly see what happens next year. But we were discussing and kind of thinking about one or two different students and we decided to focus on this one specific student. This one student full throughout the year would come and give ideas and we would brainstorm and sometimes we would send messages on different ideas like how to create with fundraisers in different ways. We didn't want to do the standard ideas. So this award is for creative entrepreneur class of 2025 and the student is Josh. Josh! Congratulations. I don't know where I'm supposed to look. All right. Nice. See you juniors. YOU GOT IT. OKAY. SO, THE CLASS OF 2026 is still looking for a sponsor and so I stepped in to help with sponsorship this year. Maybe
064next fall some of our teachers would be interested in sponsoring the class of 2026. Oh, yeah, get your stuff. Okay. This class, the class of 2026, our sophomore class. Oh my goodness, you guys have worked so hard on fundraising and working really hard with your ideas, but I wanted to pick one person who I would call our communicator. Um, really touched base with us a lot during meetings and would share ideas or if someone else needed to know, she would relay messages for me and it was such a nice help and I wanted to recognize Zenasia. Zenasia Brown. You're such a good communicator, right? Let's take a picture. All right, and again, the class of 2027 still does not have a sponsor and so I stepped in as sponsor this year, but I want to
065recognize a student who is an emerging leader. And this student was at first hesitant and afraid to commit and would go back and forth, but we saw so much potential in this student. This student is an emerging leader and can become such a wonderful strong leader. I want to recognize the potential for this student to lead their class and that is Donovan. You are an emerging leader. All right, now a very special head of house student award. Brought to you by these folks. You guys are going to announce? All right. Go ahead, Scott. Okay. Hi everyone. So this is a special award because one unique thing about this campus is our house system. This is now our fifth year and Scott Madson used to be the head of house, right? I used to be the
066head of Foster and I had to give it over to Terry who's going to take it from now on, but before I leave, I wanted to at least make mention of this. Um, we have five, well, really six student heads of houses. They were all seniors this year and they are responsible for spirit and for facilitating activities. And so we had all five, really six heads of houses and I wanted to see see some spirit first of all before I announce. Who's in house of Cogswell? Let me see your spirit. Who's in Jordan? Gallatin. Clare. Foster. So this award goes to the student head of house who showed what it means to be a student leader. I mean, they contributed everything to the student head of house. They brought their full selves to them to
067every month, every day, right here. I agree. Yes, always with a smile, always uplifted our students. Yes, I agree. That's Koto. Congratulations. Picture. All right, clap clap clap. Woo. Our biggest award is the Road Runner Award that we'll recognize each grade, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th. We voted by the high school class. It was based on behavior, class grades, role model on campus, overall involved with sports, involved with organization and clubs, and I we really want to support the top students of these grades. Hold on 1 second. All right, we'll start with 9th grade. All four of these students were great. Our first 9th grade award goes to Jose Angel. Oh, he's not here, but make sure to congratulate him when you see him. Our next is for 10th grade, our sophomores. Who out there,
068who could it be? Francesco. Congratulations. Do you want to take a picture? Okay. Ready? Now we have our juniors. I'm curious to see who which one of you. Jonathan. Congratulations. You get taller every day. They say this way. All righty, last but not least, it's the senior class. It could be one of you. This is your last chance for this award. It is Sarah. Congratulations. Okay, picture. And a chance. Oh. Nope, we got one last. Okay, we can wrap up. Yeah. Woo, it's fun. Wait, wait, wait, wait, we chant, we chant. Ready? And a chant. All right, now we can Okay, take a deep breath. That was a lot, guys. That was a lot. So many awards, so many recognitions. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. You all have done so
069great and congratulations to all of you. Now, please enjoy some cookies and some refreshments in the lobby. Take care.