Seniors Megan Flanagan and Zach Mandell will serve as the student speakers for the Class of 2014 graduation. Both were elected by their peers to deliver speeches and represent the class at the graduation ceremony. Each speaker sat down with The Western Hemisphere to reflect on their high school experiences and offer a preview of their speech.

Megan Flanagan 

“I’m planning on just being pretty sentimental… and just talking about how much Western has meant to me the last four years and how it’s molded me into the person I am today,” says Megan Flanagan, describing her speech.

She served on the Executive Council, managed for the swim team, and served in the Teacher Fellowship, where she helped special needs students on a day-to-day basis.

Recalling her favorite high school memories, Flanagan says that “MC’ing for Mr.WAHS this year was definitely a highlight,” and that “I always loved class murals because it’s the start of Spirit Week, everybody’s wearing their class color, and it’s just a really big deal and people go crazy. It’s the best class unity I see all year.”

Flanagan also enjoyed cheering on the football and basketball teams throughout her time at WAHS “because that’s when I let my school spirit show, and I’m able to spend time with friends and cheer on the teams.”

She offers a few words of advice to next year’s WAHS students. “Don’t forget that high school can be the best four years of your life, but you have to make it that way. Don’t forget to spend time with people who you usually wouldn’t spend time with, because you don’t know when you’re going to see them after you graduate.”

Flanagan will attend the University of Virginia School of Nursing in the fall.

Zach Mandell 

Zach Mandell  says that his speech will be a  “meditation on the significance of the occasion.”

During his four years at Western, Mandell wrote for The Western Hemisphere, swam on the WAHS swim team, and served as a class officer. He says that his favorite experience was beating Albemarle at the 2014 swim team district, as well as his junior and senior year Spirit Week skits.

He says that “the coming of age process” is the most important part of high school.

“High school is like a microcosm for the lifelong maturation process. It’s like in those movies where there’s the little freshman nugget who wants to be a big kid so he can go to big kid parties, and eventually, he becomes one of those big kids. In the context of social life and extracurriculars like sports teams, to me, that’s what the high school experience is all about – coming into your own.”

In terms of advice, Mandell says that “your first priority should be to make yourself happy. Pretty simple advice, but it speaks volumes. If joining the Latin club makes you happy, do it. If it doesn’t, don’t.”

Mandell will attend Cornell University in the fall, but isn’t sure what he wants to study. “I just feel like that guy from the movie The Graduate,” he says.

What will he miss most about Charlottesville? “Saturday mornings in the fall with UVA football games.”