As graduation approaches swiftly and high school draws to a close for the senior class, the time has come for this year’s student speaker to be selected. This June, Tommy Wilson will stand up in front of his peers, family, and teachers to attempt to summarize the high school experience.

        To become student speaker, “there’s an announcement at the senior class meeting,” said Heather Flor, the head of the committee that chooses the student speaker. The students then submit a speech along with an application form. A panel of teachers – there were eight this year - narrows down the applicants, and the finalists are notified and given a date on which they have to deliver their speech for the panel. Three seniors were designated as finalists this year: Tommy Wilson, Taylor Berrett, and K’t McNair.

        The panel encourages students to write whatever they feel truly sums up four years of high school. “There are no specific guidelines. We want to see what [the students] come up with because the student speaker is supposed to represent the senior class. We’ve received a wide range of approaches...We want it to be meaningful but also entertaining,” Flor said.       

        Wilson’s speech is centered on a scientific fact. “It’s common scientific knowledge that you forget about 80 percent of what you learn, so that leaves 20 percent. Basically, what is that other 20 percent?” Wilson said.

        The decision to apply to be student speaker was based on several things for Wilson. “My parents would really appreciate it if I got it, so to make them proud. And I can provide an accurate reflection of high school other than the valedictorian,” he said.

        In many ways, Wilson is an ideal graduation speaker. “Tommy as an individual has grown and changed and represents the influence we [as teachers] would like to have on students,” Flor said.

        Rachel Pardue was Wilson’s Algebra I teacher his freshman year, and they have maintained the relationship they built that year throughout Wilson’s high school career. When Pardue first met Wilson, she said he seemed “goofy, but sweet. He was a nice kid. He was polite, but he used to just goof off a lot of the time. You didn’t really take him very seriously. He was not interested in school.”

        However, over time, everything changed. “[My first impression of him] has changed so much every single year,” said Pardue. “By the end of freshman year, he began to put in more time with me, just trying to pass the Algebra class. Sophomore year, I found out that he has a moral code of right and wrong. If something wasn’t right, he thought something should be done about it. I don’t know when he started to read, but he would read like philosophy type things and have all of these insightful, interesting things to talk about...He became a more disciplined person over time...He changed a lot after India. I think his whole perspective changed on what’s really important, and the world just got a lot bigger than Dominion.”

        The change for Wilson came in November of 2008, although it began earlier. “I was looking at friends who were achieving a lot more than I was, and I figured, hey, if they can do it, I can do it too,” Wilson said. Even though the beginning of his high school career was not as focused as the latter part, Wilson said, “I don’t regret being stupid because it gives me a greater appreciation of where I am now. I only regret not [changing] sooner.”

        Pardue firmly believes that Wilson is a wonderful person. “[He is] brutally honest with an intent for good. You know what you’re getting with Tommy. He’s disciplined with his health, and he gets overexcited about stuff. He’s very intense. I just can’t wait to see what he’s going to do.”

        Next year, Wilson is taking his experience in India and bringing it to college with him. He will be attending Virginia Commonwealth University to study Global Development in West Africa.

        “I foresee Tommy finding a way to make a global change, some kind of a difference with international cooperation and communication,” Pardue predicted.