Editor’s note: Bearden has announced its Top Ten students for the Class of 2026, along with Valedictorian and Salutatorian. The “Top Ten” is an achievement awarded to the highest GPAs in the graduating class. This year, Leo Nishizawa achieved the coveted Salutatorian title, and for the first time in nine years, the award for Valedictorian is a tie. Mery Diaz and Yejoon Ham will share the honor. The following story on Nishizawa is the third in our three-part series about the honorees.
One of Bearden’s most popular traditions is the extra two weeks of summer awarded to graduating seniors. The members of the Class of 2026 are counting down the days to the end of their secondary academic careers.
Many are looking forward to being officially done with Bearden academia; however, a few seniors have a bit more work to do.
Earlier this semester, Leo Nishizawa was named the salutatorian of the Class of 2026. With this coveted honor comes a special task: to deliver a speech at graduation.
And Nishizawa is aiming to break the mold.
“Leo is an intelligent and knowledgeable young man, but he has a way of speaking so that everyone can relate and understand,” said Mrs. Tonya Henke, Nishizawa’s AP Research teacher.
Graduation is at Bearden’s football field on May 14 at 8 p.m.
Last year, Nishizawa completed both AP Language and Composition as well as AP Seminar, two classes which prepared him to not only deliver speeches, but to analyze them as well. Within the AP Lang curriculum, a specific Free Response Question titled “Rhetorical Analysis” tasks students with both highlighting and providing commentary on rhetorical strategies used by authors, poets, and public speakers alike.
Nishizawa was able to keep this in mind when considering what he wanted his speech to be about and what he wanted it to convey.
A particularly impactful rhetorical device is to appeal to the audience. Acknowledging this, Nishizawa identified an aspect of the Class of 2026’s high school career that is significant to this cohort of students.
“Our entire high school career, we have been in the presence of AI,” Nishizawa said.
He continued by explaining how he set out to write his speech on the imprint Artificial Intelligence has had on the class’s four years at Bearden.
“They’re going to live their life and they should make their own decisions rather than having to rely on someone else,” Nishizawa said.
Deanna Wheelock, a close friend of Nishizawa, is looking forward to hearing his speech. Wheelock, who previously participated in an AP Seminar research group with Nishizawa, knows that the skills that Nishizawa gleaned from the class are sure to shine.
“He was good at explanations and especially in the speech writings,” Wheelock said. “He’s grown a lot throughout high school, and I’m sure he’d like to talk about other people, but I would really like to hear him talk about himself.”
Nishizawa is planning on speaking about himself, but only for a short portion of his speech. Following a personal anecdote, Nishizawa will switch toward a wider perspective, engaging the entire audience in a conversation about Artificial Intelligence usage.
“I assume that most of us have used AI in one instance or another,” Nishizawa said, “but I’m hoping that I will move the speech to be more towards the disconnecting of AI usage to the general direction your life will go.”