St. Monica Catholic School

First of all, I want to thank God for everything and everyone I have in my life, including my parents and all of the parents and guardians of my classmates who have given up so much for all of us to be here today. My parents have done more than I know to get me to and from school every day and to provide for me, my brothers and my sister through the work they do.

I’ll always be grateful for their choice to send me here and for taking me to church every week so that I can stay an active Catholic. Once again, thank you to all of the parents and guardians for everything you do.

While they were our first teachers, our teachers in school have also been a huge part of where we are now. My teachers at St. Monica, from pre-K through 8th grade, have done a great job of teaching us what we need to learn while also caring for us.

I hear stories about other schools where the teachers don’t really care about the students and don’t see them as individuals, but I’m happy to say that that hasn’t been the case here. I appreciate all of my teachers from my first year here to my last, whether they’re here now or not, and I hope that they all continue to do good things for students in the future.

I also want to thank my coaches from basketball and track for coaching me and my teammates to be as good as we can be. They’re always very encouraging, no matter how well we’re doing, and tell us when there’s something that we need to do differently. That’s really important in sports. I’ve played basketball for several years here, through CYO and for the school team, and that wouldn’t be possible without my coaches. I was also in track and field this year for the first time, and my coaches there were great at helping me learn how things went and helping me to improve.

There are lots of things that I could say about my experiences at St. Monica, but there are too many to mention them all. One thing I will mention is the Fiesta Field Day tradition. This was one of my favorite things about the school each year we had it. We were able to hang out with our friends, play games and eat as much as we wanted for most of them. The last couple of years we had it, it was a bit different, but overall they were all a lot of fun, and I hope that tradition can continue at the school.

And last but not least, I want to congratulate all of my classmates for making it through the first ten years of school. We’ve come a long way from when we were little kids in the annex, to our time in elementary school, to where we are now at the end of middle school. You’ve all been great classmates and friends throughout my time here. Before we leave for high school, I want you to know that I appreciate all of you. Good luck in high school and afterwards, and be successful in whatever it is that you end up doing. Thank you.

Daniel Boehme is graduating from 8th grade at St. Monica Catholic School, and is valedictorian of his class. He has always been an exceptional student with a great work ethic. He participates in the Beta club (an academic service club), basketball, and track. In track, he was part of the 4x400 team that won first place in every event. He will be attending the International School of the Americas next year.