Graduation Speech Topics

The Top 15 Graduation Speech Topics
With Five Bonus Tips on Choosing the Best

Top 15 Countdown
Popular Graduation Speech Topics

15. Gratitude

Express your gratitude to all the people who helped you through the years. That includes your family (especially your parents), friends, teachers, and anyone who encouraged or supported you in your studies.

14. Accomplishments

Speak about at least one or two significant accomplishments that your school or your class achieved during your time with them.

13. Humorous Experiences

Use humor to keep your audience interested in what you're saying, or choose a quote. Apply the words to your classmates and what you've experienced together during your school years.

12. Stories of Change

Look to the past and share stories of how things have changed since you started attending this school. Keep it upbeat and positive.

11. Look Forward

Throw in your advice on how everyone should move forward now that you are all graduating. Come up with something that will inspire your classmates to look forward to their futures and let go of the past.

10. Convey a Message

Decide on the overall message you want to impart.

Choose something that relates to you and your audience.

Will it be Inspiring?  Motivating?  Funny?  Interesting?

Choose something about which you feel comfortable or feel strongly.

9. Who Inspired You

Talk about someone who has inspired you. Give examples of how they've helped you to grow into the person you've become.

8. A Song with Meaning

Pick a song that has meaning to you and use the words in it to express how you feel about graduating. Could be funny, for example, Pharrell Williams' song 'Happy' or it could be something uplifting like Justin Timberlake's 'Can't Stop The Feeling.'

7. Praise a Classmate

Choose someone in your class that has done something phenomenal and make it a point to praise your classmate and thank them for showing that everyone can overcome obstacles if you just put your mind to it.

6. Appreciate a Teacher

Pick a teacher or faculty member that everyone looks up to and point out how they've helped you and your fellow students to excel.

5. Connect to History

Take the day that you are graduating and look back on historical events that happened on that day. If something captivating or funny happened, weave it into your speech.

4. Impactful Events

Look back on the past years of your education. Did something significant happen during those years? A big news story that affected you and your classmates? Speak about how you all dealt with it and helped each other out.

3. Audience Suggestions

Talk to parents, students, teachers, and anyone else you might think could help. Listen to what they say about what they would like to hear in your speech. It doesn't mean you have to use any of their suggestions, but it might give you some ideas.

2. Relates to Students and Parents

Keep your comments relevant to your school. Don't speak about stories or tell a joke that only your friends would understand. Remember you are talking to everyone in the audience. So come up with a great story that everyone can relate to, such as how all parents have something in common today.

And #1. Give Thanks

The last tip for any graduation speech is to make sure that you thank everyone for coming and wish your fellow graduates the very best and brightest future.

5 Tips for Creating Graduation Speech Topics

1. Figure out what kind of speaker you are. Are you generally funny, serious, nervous, optimistic, pessimistic? Use your natural traits to guide you in writing your graduation speech.
2. You know who is going to be at the ceremony, so ask the planned attendees what they think might be some good graduation speech topics. Get a good sample of your audience members. Ask teachers, students, friends, family, faculty staff, etc.
3. Think back over years of some of your stories. What have you told other people about your school? If you've repeated these stories, then they mean something to you. Use them in your speech.
4. Free associate. Write down the word graduation and then draw lines out to other circles to create a mind-map. Put whatever terms pop into your head into those circles when you think of the concept of graduation. Then expand on the initial ideas by writing down a sentence or two of why they popped into your mind.
5. Use the search box below to check for other excellent graduation speech topics and examples on Best-Speech-Topics.com!

Being asked to make a graduation speech is an honor, although I do appreciate that it can also be daunting!

I hope that you've found these graduation speech topics inspiring and they've helped you on your way to crafting a speech that everyone remembers!