A valedictorian speech is the farewell address a graduating class hears from its top student, or from whoever the school has given the title. The word comes from the Latin valedicere, "to say farewell." In 19th-century American schools the salutatorian opened commencement with a greeting and the valedictorian closed it with the goodbye, and many ceremonies still run in that order. The job hasn't changed: say goodbye for the class. Thank the people who got everyone there, name what the class went through together, and send them off with one idea.
The hard part is particular to valedictorians. You earned the microphone with grades, and the speech can't be about grades. Below are a six-part structure with a time budget, five original speeches, lines to adapt and a step-by-step way to write yours.
How it differs from other speeches
Most ceremonies have several speakers, and each has a different job. Find out who else is on your program before you pick a theme, so you don't give the same speech as the person before you.
| Speaker | Usually chosen by | Job on the day |
|---|---|---|
| SpeakerSalutatorian | Usually chosen bySecond-highest grades | Job on the dayWelcome the guests and open the ceremony |
| SpeakerClass president or student speaker | Usually chosen byClass vote or audition | Job on the daySpeak for the class, often with more humor |
| SpeakerCommencement speaker | Usually chosen byThe school | Job on the dayAn outside view, usually lessons from a career |
| SpeakerValedictorian | Usually chosen byHighest grades, nomination or vote | Job on the daySay goodbye on the class's behalf, traditionally as the last student speaker |
Three things make the valedictorian's speech harder than it looks.
You start with authority and a little suspicion. Your rank gives you instant ethos: the room assumes you did the work. Part of the room also expects to be lectured by the student who finished first. Spend the authority on the class. Mention the title once, ideally at your own expense, then turn the speech toward everyone else.
It's a farewell. Families remember the last minute best, and the last minute is where the goodbye goes. Write it with as much care as the opening, and make it obvious when you're done.
The title may not mean what it used to. Some schools name several valedictorians, a few name dozens, and others have dropped class rank altogether. Colorado's Cherry Creek School District announced in 2022 that it would stop naming valedictorians, starting with the class of 2026. In Canada, many schools choose the valedictorian by nomination or class vote rather than by grades. If your classmates picked you, say so: it changes your first line.
A structure for five minutes
Student speakers usually get three to five minutes, and some schools cap them at three. English speakers in the US average about 150 words a minute, according to the National Center for Voice and Speech, but people slow down at a microphone and stop for laughter. Budget about 130 words a minute: roughly 650 words for five minutes, 400 for three.
| Part | What it does | Time | Words |
|---|---|---|---|
| Part1. Greeting | What it doesOfficials by title, then teachers, families and graduates. No thank-yous yet. | Time0:20 | Words45 |
| Part2. Opening | What it doesOne detail only this class shares: a place, a routine, a number | Time0:40 | Words85 |
| Part3. The title, briefly | What it doesOne line on why you're the one up here, then move on | Time0:20 | Words45 |
| Part4. The class's story | What it doesTwo or three specific moments, mostly other people's | Time1:30 | Words195 |
| Part5. The idea | What it doesWhat those moments add up to, in one sentence, and what to do with it | Time1:20 | Words175 |
| Part6. Thanks and farewell | What it doesSpecific thank-yous, then the goodbye, calling back to the opening | Time0:50 | Words105 |
Two choices in that table go against the usual advice. The thank-yous move to the end, because a list of names straight after the greeting is the slowest possible start, and gratitude is a natural run-up to a goodbye. And your own achievement gets exactly one line, in part 3, so the audience stops wondering whether you'll bring it up again.
A full valedictorian speech example
This speech runs about four minutes aloud, closer to five with laughter and applause. The school, the people and every detail are invented. Keep the shape and replace the rest with your own class.
Good evening, Principal Okafor, members of the school board, teachers, families, and graduates.
I'm up here because of a number. It was calculated to four decimal places, and the difference between first and second place was smaller than one quiz in tenth-grade health. So, Danny Ruiz: the food pyramid quiz. I'm sorry. I would do it again.
That number is on my transcript. But this month I asked a lot of you what you'll remember about this place, and I can tell you what our transcripts leave out.
They leave out that Keisha Brown worked thirty hours a week at Riverside Market all through senior year, and still came to every robotics meeting with a bag of day-old bagels for the team.
They leave out the greenhouse behind the science wing. Two years ago it was a storage shed with broken windows. Then a group of juniors, most of whom were not taking AP Biology, spent a spring rebuilding it. This morning there were tomatoes.
They leave out Tuesday nights at the Lakeview library, where half of our calculus class learned derivatives from Arjun Mehta, who was not paid, not graded, and not even in calculus anymore. He took it the year before. He just kept coming back.
And they leave out the week in February when the heat went out, and Mrs. Castellano taught American Lit in her parka, and we wrote our essays on The Great Gatsby wearing gloves. Nobody complained, because she didn't.
None of that has a decimal point. All of it is why we're sitting here.
It took me four years and a lot of grades to figure this out: the things that get measured aren't the things that matter most. They're the things that are easiest to measure. A GPA is easy. Showing up with bagels is hard to put on a spreadsheet, so nobody does.
Next year, almost everyone here gets measured again. Credits, paychecks, performance reviews, the time on a two-mile run at basic training. Let the numbers count what they can. But keep track of the other things yourself: who brought the bagels, who taught you calculus for free, who taught in a parka. And then be that person for someone else, especially when nobody's counting.
Which brings me to the people I want to thank, and I'll be quick, because they would want me to be. To our teachers: you graded us, and then you did a hundred things that weren't on any rubric. To our families: thank you for every ride, every dinner kept warm, every permission slip signed in the car. Mamá, Papá: mil gracias. And to Mr. Petrakis, our night custodian, who let the robotics team stay until nine and pretended not to see us: thank you.
Graduates, this is the part where I'm supposed to say goodbye. So: goodbye to the broken greenhouse, and hello to the tomatoes. Goodbye to the parkas. Goodbye to the decimal points. Go keep track of the things that count.
Congratulations, and thank you.
What makes it work:
- The title gets one joke, then the speech turns outward. The joke pokes at the speaker's own competitiveness. If you name a classmate in a joke, as this one names Danny, ask them first.
- "They leave out" repeats four times. Repetition at the start of each paragraph is one of the oldest rhetorical devices. It helps listeners keep their place, and each time it introduces someone who isn't the speaker.
- The examples cover the whole class: a student with a job, students outside the honors track, graduates headed to work and the military as well as college.
- The thanks are specific and come late. A short line in your family's language needs no translation. It's for them.
- The farewell calls back to the opening. The speech starts with a number and ends by saying goodbye to it, which tells the audience the speech is over.
Short and funny speech examples
With a two- or three-minute limit, keep one story and one idea. Humor works when it's aimed at you or at things everyone lived through, like the parking lot or the fire drills, never at a teacher or classmate who didn't agree to it.
Good morning, Dr. Hayes, teachers, families, and graduates.
For four years I rode the Route 9 bus. It left the corner of Elm and Fourth at 6:52 and got to school at 7:41: forty-nine minutes to go eleven miles. I did most of my homework on that bus. I also did most of my growing up on it.
Route 9 had rules nobody wrote down. Seniors sat in the back. You saved a seat for someone who got on after you. If somebody was crying, you didn't ask questions. You gave them the window. And Ms. Dolores, our driver, waited exactly forty-five seconds for anyone running down the block. Never one second less.
I'm up here because of my grades. But if you ask me what this school is, it's people who wait forty-five seconds for you.
After today the bus stops coming, and nobody is going to save us a seat. So save one for someone else. Wait for the person running down the block. Give up the window.
Ms. Dolores, thank you for waiting. Teachers, thank you for waiting a lot longer than forty-five seconds, a lot of times. Families, thank you for the 6:30 alarms.
Graduates, this is our stop. Congratulations.
One setting, one unwritten rule, three instructions, and a last line that's literally true. The title gets a single clause.
I know what some of you are thinking: of course she's the valedictorian, she's never been to a party. That's not true. I've been to one party. I left at 9:15 to finish a lab report, and Marcus's mom drove me home and asked, very gently, if everything was okay at home.
Everything is fine at home. Hi, Mom.
Here are the last four years by the numbers. Three fire alarms during finals week. One of them was the culinary class. None of them were me, whatever the yearbook says. Two principals. One snow day, which this class spent together, refreshing the district website. About four hundred emails from the counseling office, every one of them marked "IMPORTANT."
I've been told I have five minutes. If I go over, Mr. Kim has permission to cut me off with the band. Mr. Kim? [The band plays one loud note.] They've been rehearsing that note since March.
The joke about the title comes before anyone else can make it, and the list of numbers fits half a dozen small laughs into thirty seconds. A bit that involves the band or a teacher needs a rehearsal with them and a mention to whoever approves the speech.
Co-valedictorians and small classes
When two or more students share the title, ask whether the school wants one speech or several. One joint speech is usually better than two back to back. Split it by section rather than line by line, which sounds rehearsed, and finish together.
NADIA: Good evening, everyone. I'm Nadia.
THEO: And I'm Theo. We're the co-valedictorians, which means our GPAs match to the third decimal place.
NADIA: We've been lab partners since ninth-grade biology.
THEO: We've disagreed about everything since ninth-grade biology. So we asked the class to settle it. We sent all 214 of you one question: what will you remember?
NADIA: We got 163 answers. Eleven of you said the vending machine that only took exact change. Nine said Ms. Ferrante's "Good morning, scholars," which she said every single day, including the day the roof leaked into her room.
THEO: And 41 of you, almost one in five, named a person who helped you without being asked. A teacher, a lunch server, a kid on the bus. Forty-one different people.
NADIA: So we finally agree on something. This speech is theirs. We just read the answers.
Asking the whole class gives two speakers from the same honors classes material from everyone else. Write it as one document with the speakers' names in the margin, rehearse together at least twice, and decide who holds the pages.
A small class can do something a big school can't: name every graduate. At eight to ten seconds a name, a roll call fits a class of up to about thirty.
There are eighteen of us, and I've known fourteen of you since kindergarten. So I'm going to do something you can't do at a big school. I'm going to say one true thing about every one of you.
Abby Larsen, who drove the tractor in the homecoming parade three years running and hit the mailbox only once.
Ben Okoro, who fixed the gym scoreboard with a paper clip during the district semifinal.
Carmen Diaz, who read every book in the library's young adult section, wrote to the county asking for more, and got them.
Dylan Fisk, who didn't say a word in English class until senior year and then wrote the best essay any of us read.
[One sentence for each graduate, in alphabetical order.]
And me. I'm the one who wrote it all down.
Use it only if you can include everyone: leaving one person out is worse than skipping the idea. Every family will hear their graduate's sentence, so make each one generous.
Openings, title lines and farewells
Three spots carry a valedictorian speech: the first line after the greeting, the line about your title, and the goodbye. Keep the technique and swap in your own details. For more, see how to start a speech and how to end a speech.
A routine. "For four years, the morning announcements started with the same three words: 'Good morning, Wildcats.' I've always wanted to say it. It's evening, so: good evening, Wildcats."
A number. "This class has 312 graduates, four lunch periods and, as of this morning, one working water fountain on the second floor."
An object. "I'm wearing the shoes I wore on the first day of ninth grade. They were too big then. They're too small now."
The question everyone asked. "Every teacher in this building has heard 'Will this be on the test?' Tonight, for the last time, the answer is no."
The margin. "The difference between me and our salutatorian is one-hundredth of a point. Jada, I think it was the extra-credit poster. It was a very good poster."
Chosen by vote. "Nobody picked me for this with a spreadsheet. You voted, which means if this goes badly, it's on you."
One of many. "There are nine valedictorians this year, so if this speech feels short, it's because I'm one-ninth of it."
The word itself. "Valedictorian comes from the Latin for saying farewell, and vale means 'be well.' So that's my last word to you. Be well."
The room. "Four years ago this gym held our freshman orientation. Tonight it's the last room we'll all be in at the same time. Look around before you leave it."
The handoff. "In a minute, Principal Okafor will read 312 names. Listen to every one of them. Congratulations."
Mistakes that sink the speech
Most failed valedictorian speeches fail the same way: they become about the valedictorian. The rest go wrong on length or on the rules.
Do
- Mention the title once, lightly, and move on.
- Tell other people's stories more than your own.
- Use one quote at most, and check who really said it.
- Aim jokes at yourself and at what everyone lived through.
- Include graduates headed to jobs, the military and trade programs.
- Get any change approved before the ceremony.
Don't
- List your awards, scores or the college you chose.
- Explain how you did it, as if everyone should have.
- Fill the middle with famous quotes.
- Roast a teacher or a classmate who didn't agree to it.
- Talk about "the real world" as if everyone is going to college.
- Rewrite the approved speech the night before.
How to write your valedictorian speech
- Get the rules and the program
Ask for the time limit, the submission deadline, who approves the text and where you speak in the ceremony. Find out who else is speaking, and agree with the salutatorian on who tells which stories, so the welcome and the farewell don't overlap.
- Ask the class, not just your friends
Valedictorians tend to come from one corner of a school: the same honors classes, the same clubs. Ask twenty classmates outside it, plus a teacher, a coach and someone on the custodial or cafeteria staff, one question: "What will you remember?" You want thirty specific details. You'll use five.
- Write the idea as one sentence
Look for what three of those details have in common, and write it so a twelve-year-old would understand it: "The things that matter most are the hardest to measure." If it takes two sentences, you have two speeches. Pick one.
- Draft to the word budget
Give each of the six parts its share from the table above. A speech outline template with times beside each section keeps the middle from eating the ending. Draft the farewell line early, since everything before it is a run-up. Write for the ear: short sentences, names instead of pronouns, and repetition that would look clumsy on a page.
- Read it aloud, time it, cut whole parts
Read it standing up, at microphone pace. If it runs long, cut a whole story rather than trimming words from every sentence. Then read it to someone outside your class, such as a grandparent. Any reference they ask about needs one sentence of explanation or has to go. Check the tone too: warm even where it's funny, never smug.
- Freeze the approved version
Once the school approves the text, that text is the speech. Keep it as its own saved version so late tinkering can't creep in. In Strokes you can save a version on demand, preview any saved version with the changes marked, and restore it in one click. A dated copy of the file does the same job in any editor. Print it in large type with numbered pages, learn the first and last lines by heart, and use these methods for memorizing a speech for the rest.
For salutatorian welcomes and other slots on the program, see these graduation speech examples.
Frequently asked questions
How long is a valedictorian speech?
Usually three to five minutes, but your school sets the limit and some cap student speakers at three. At about 130 words a minute, which leaves room for laughter and applause, that is roughly 400 to 650 words. Time a full read-aloud before you submit it.
What is the difference between a valedictorian and a salutatorian speech?
The salutatorian, traditionally second in the class, greets the audience and opens the ceremony. The valedictorian, traditionally first, gives the farewell near the end. The names come from Latin words for greeting and for saying goodbye. Many schools now choose speakers by vote or audition, so the order varies.
Should I mention my GPA or the college I'm going to?
Mention the title once, ideally with a joke at your own expense, and leave out your GPA, test scores and college. The audience knows why you're at the microphone, and a list of achievements sounds like a victory lap to a room full of people who didn't finish first.
What if there are several valedictorians?
Ask whether the school wants one speech or several. If you share the stage, write one speech together, split it by section and agree on the stories so nobody tells the same one twice. If each of you speaks separately, compare themes the way you would with the salutatorian.
Can a valedictorian speech be funny?
Yes, in places. Aim the jokes at yourself and at things the whole class went through, keep only inside jokes you can explain in a sentence, and make the last minute sincere. A farewell that ends on a punchline leaves the audience unsure when to clap.
