Ode to our Grads

As you start to work; begin a trade; attend your first class, you will find that doors will open to you because, as kids from the small towns and country, you know how to work! You take leadership positions. Employers will search you out because you display a willingness to jump in and join the team.

Attending a small school is a stepping-stone to a successful life and career. Many parents spend tens of thousands of dollars to send their children to a small private school just like our G.D.H.S.

Ask our alumni who have reached the top of their sports careers… business careers… about G.D.H.S. Everyone made the teams! No one is left out. Bill and Melinda Gates feel so strongly that small schools are the best environment for students that their Foundation funds small schools. They even break up big schools into “schools-within-schools” in order to create healthy learning communities where students won’t get lost.

Remember your community and high school. Support your G.D.H.S. Alumni & Friends Association. Don’t forget where you came from. You are blessed with rural roots in one of the best countries in the world. Given this luck of birth, this privilege we all share, we all have a responsibility to make this world a better place.

Delivered to Commencement
Richard Cowell, President, G.D.H.S. Alumni & Friends Association
October 6, 2006