Libertas Academy Valedictorian Speech 2026

Good afternoon, students, staff, and guests. Thank you each for being here today and for all of the other ways you’ve supported my classmates and I over the past four years. We have all been blessed immensely by the faculty here, who have helped us grow as students, artists, athletes, and Christians, as well as our parents and the various sacrifices they’ve made to allow us to attend this school. The gift of this education is not one that will be soon forgotten. 

In addition to growing as individuals, we have also developed incredible friendships and memories here at Libertas Academy. We all enjoyed the extracurriculars and events that happened regularly, like the Lake Days, Spirit Weeks, Winter Formals, and Spring Protocols. And though these were fun and formative experiences, I believe we truly grew closer in the day-to-day, when we saw each other at our weakest and shared the knowing smiles that only come from understanding a person intimately. Many schools and workplaces claim to have a family-like community, but Libertas took this to another level, being the size of a large family, and coexisting in a building that is quite literally a family home. Sometimes when we used too many microwaves at once, I would be asked to go under the stairs to flip the circuit breaker. I am incredibly grateful for the relationships that I have had the blessing of engaging with over the past four years.

Libertas Academy emphasizes its classical curriculum, which made our experience rigorous and rhetoric-focused, made our Physical Education program intense, and in general, strove to educate the whole student in mind, body, and spirit. What matters more to Libertas Academy Leadership than its classical curriculum, however, is its Christ-centered teaching, which pervades every part of our education. At every point, we were reminded that the goal of our learning was not to increase in conceit and raw intelligence, but to glorify our creator and to become more effective members of the body which is his church. This was an incredible gift that came at a period of our lives in which we were possibly the most malleable and open to influence.

Unfortunately, as many of you have heard, academic year 2025-2026 was the last year for Libertas Academy High School. It would be easy to view Libertas in light of this development as a failure or waste of time, but this is one of the advantages of education for eternity- its effects echo far past the existence of the institution, and into perpetuity. Over the past seven years, Libertas has made better humans and Christians of 58 students, and given 24 of them a diploma to prove it. We shouldn’t value Libertas for what it could have been, but for what it was for those who got to experience it. I personally believe that Libertas Academy was exactly what I needed, exactly when I needed it, and its effects will ripple into eternity.

The message that most graduates receive in speeches like this is that if they believe in themselves and work hard enough, they can become great, influential, and change the world, which may be true. However, I don’t think this is what Libertas Academy was about. Sure, we learned leadership, rhetoric, and logic, but the objective was never to rise above our peers or manipulate others to our own ends, but rather to glorify God by leading others toward him. Wealth and influence can be instruments to this end, but can never be ends in themselves. 

I propose that success, as modern culture defines it, is a futile struggle with no possible resolution. Not one of us will ever be rich, influential, or even loved enough to finally feel complete or to justify ourselves. This idea of sanctification through glorification is a common misunderstanding, one that even those closest to Jesus had. The disciples expected Jesus to call upon his unlimited power to destroy the Roman empire and restore Israel to its former Glory, but Jesus instead faithfully fostered close relationships, preached to any who were willing to listen, often those who were the furthest from conventional success, and ultimately performed the ultimate act of mercy and self-sacrifice to expand the covenant and provide salvation for all who believed in him. Mark 10:43-45 says this: “whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

It is common for high school students, and especially seniors, to be worried about their future lives and careers, and obviously, a certain amount of intentionality and responsibility must be taken during this phase of life. By overvaluing the future and trying to account for it, though, we risk missing the present, which, as C.S Lewis says, is the point at which time touches eternity.  In the section of the Screwtape Letters that C.S Lewis makes this assertion, he goes on to say this: “In a word, the Future is, of all things, the thing least like eternity. It is the most completely temporal part of time — for the Past is frozen and no longer flows, and the Present is all lit up with eternal rays.” The present battles, blessings, and relationships are more important than the plans we have for the future, for it is these things on which those eternal rays shine. Matthew 6:34 says this: “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

One of the casualties of the future success-oriented mindset is personal relationships. It would seem to some that individual relationships matter little in the grand scheme of reality, an idea which is perpetuated by mainstream media, which glorifies the lone wolf, the one who “made it” without the help or affection of others. This could not be further from the truth. When the Pharisees asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was, he said this: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” The relationships we have with those around us are reflections of our relationship with the one in whose image they were created, and are thus the most important thing after our worship of God.

So, students, my charge: Humbly obey God and love your neighbor right now. Popular culture will try to tell you that greatness is found in what rebellious, individual success you could achieve. But if Libertas Academy has taught you one thing, it is that salvation is found in present submission to God alone. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”

Thank you.