An Interview With Our Valedictorian, Lauren Davis

With Lauren Davis, Valedictorian of the Class of 2015:

Lauren Davis is most definitely a people-person, which fits in perfectly with her senior year revelation. When recounting the lessons she learned senior year, she noted that you have to focus on the important things. “Honestly, people are important,” she told me. “Your relationships and how you make people feel are most important. Stress and worries are insignificant compared to all that.”

The Class of 2015’s Valedictorian is well known around Sacred Heart for her upbeat attitude and unstoppable friendliness. Her senior year was her best, she said, but not because of her academic and athletic accomplishments (there are many); it was her attitude – the same attitude that us SHA girls saw around the school and tried to emulate – that made senior year the greatest. “The way I was senior year was the person I want to be for the rest of my life – calm, not stressed, going with the flow,” she said.

Keeping with Lauren’s value of personal relationships, it was the people in her life – our school community – who made her Valedictorian title special, not the pride in having the highest grade-point average in the Class of 2015. “It’s such an honor to represent my class,” she said, “but it wouldn’t be as great if our class wasn’t as supportive.” Lauren’s victory was indeed a victory for the entire senior class.

But where did that amazing Valedictorian speech come from? For those who were not at graduation (or who did not see the headline of the New Haven Register, which was inspired by Lauren’s speech!), it was constructed around an airplane metaphor, with our four years at SHA as a flight on “Sacred Heart Airlines.” “I went down to visit a college, and our flight kept getting delayed and delayed. We had to sleep in the airport,” she told me. “We heard the flight attendants’ voices a lot over the intercom. I wanted to make the speech creative, and Ms. Destito recommended that I make that experience the theme.”

To fully complete the flight experience, Lauren switched to a flight attendant’s voice seamlessly throughout the speech – bravely in front of the packed gym. “It’s weird, but I like public speaking,” Lauren said. “I practiced the speech five times at the microphone in the gym.”

… With glorious results. As Lauren orated, us graduates nodded along, clapped, and cheered our Valedictorian on. It was the perfect finale to our long flight at SHA. Thank you, Lauren, for ending graduation on a – pun intended – high note!

 

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