- May 13, 2026
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Chloe Pogoda, a graduating senior at Braden River High School, is a big believer in exposure therapy
Embarrassment, for her, simply doesn’t exist.
Pogoda, along with Kaiya Peters and Isai Palacios, will be speaking at the Bradenton River High School commencement ceremony.
Pogoda said she is nervous, but knows it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. She knew even as a freshman, she wanted to speak at graduation.
“I always tell myself, no one knows what I'm about to say,“ Pogoda said. “As long as I just have a steady mind and a steady flow of words ,and not speak too fast, no one's going to know if I mess up.”
Unlike Pogoda, Palacios didn’t consider he might be a speaker at the graduation ceremony until last summer. He was watching his favorite show “Ted Lasso” when he was inspired to speak in front of his peers.
“He (Ted Lasso) would always say to believe, because that's a big saying in the show,” Palacios said. “For me, it's made me reflect back on my years and how I've always believed in myself and how others have believed in me.”
Peters said that being a bit nervous, she has sought guidance from staff members at Braden River High when it came to finalizing her speech. She said, however, the number of listeners won’t impact the way she presents it.
In her speech, Peters said she will compare her time in school to a library. With the different lessons her fellow students have learned, they are building their catalog.
“We learn things, not just from a curriculum, but from how other people treat us and how we're treating other people.”
Seniors Juliana Vendramini, Madison Goodwin and Zachariah Kersey will speak at the Lakewood Ranch High School commencement ceremony.
Vendramini said her personality has been shaped by her time at the school and she is honored to have been chosen to speak at graduation. She loves public speaking and said a lot of graduation speeches “tend to drift back to personal memories or accolades.” She wants to make sure every student can relate to what she is saying and can reflect on their accomplishments in high school as they look toward the future.
“I know graduation is usually a celebration, but I’m honestly a bit emotional going into it,” Vendramini said. “I’m hoping I can channel that energy into a good speech delivery. I know my friends and family are out there listening to me, so it makes me feel empowered and hopefully strong enough to deliver my speech well.”
Goodwin said she appreciates how much the school has prepared her for the future, especially in terms of being ready to take on bigger campuses in college due to already attending a large high school. She said she learned to root myself, either with a person, a teacher or with a subject, in order to get the most out of her learning.
“Even though there's 600 of us, it's just a big family,” Goodwin said.
Seniors Eliana Yeboah, Suzan Ikele, Sara Johnson, Jeffrey Crabtree and Ciara Charles are representing Lakewood Ranch Preparatory Academy at its commencement.
For Johnson, stress is a motivator for her, therefore she is planning to write her speech the day prior to graduation. She wants to encourage her fellow classmates to accomplish anything they set their minds to doing.
That idea is especially important to her as she moved to the U.S. from Iraq in 2020. She has been accepted into Cornell University and her pride of that accomplishment is for her mom, Haveen, who never finished high school.
“Everything I am doing, I want to credit to her because she's the whole reason I'm here,” Johnson said. “I'm going to college and getting my education for her.”
Yeboah has been reading the announcements at Lakewood Ranch Prep over the intercom for the past four years. Agreeing to present a speech in front of a crowd took a leap of faith for her.
She said the students at Lakewood Ranch Prep have been through a lot of changes, including a lot of turnover in staff members at the school. She said it has been a journey.
“It speaks to our resilience as a class, especially those of us who've been here from the beginning,” Yeboa said. “There's not one of us who hasn’t pushed through and given their best. We've stood together and we're very connected.”
Ikele, the valedictorian of Lakewood Ranch Prep, hopes her peers walk away with guidance for the future, but she wants them also to appreciate the past.
“Focus on your goals and what you're trying to be, but it's also about the journey,” Ikele said. “Who you help along the way and the memories you make with the people around you is the most important. That's what I remember about high school.”
