How does the future look? High school valedictorians share their hopes

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• Lisa Desjardins:

  For students around the country, this time of year marks something many years in the making: graduation. While politicians get plenty of airtime debate in the future, tonight we hear from some new voices, a few valedictorians and salutatorians, about this moment and what they see ahead.

• Valerie Herniquez, Brooklyn, New York:

  Hi, my name is Valerie Herniquez. I am from Brooklyn, New York and I am the valedictorian.

• Ericka Henriquez, Brooklyn, New York:

  Hello, my name is Ericka Henriquez and I am the salutatorian.

• Patrick Baughman, Sioux City, Iowa:

  I'm Patrick Baughman from Sioux City, Iowa.

• Shriya Garg, Rome, Georgia:

  My name is Shriya Garg and I'm from Rome, Georgia.

• Kevin Guardado:

  My name is Kevin Guardado. I'm from Honduras.

• Muna Abanoor, Boston, Massachusetts (through translator):

  Hi, I'm Muna Abanoor and I'm from Boston, Massachusetts. I'll be going to Gallaudet University, which is the only liberal arts university for the deaf in the world in Washington, DC.

• Ericka Henriquez:

  I know high school flies by, but it was just like, I blinked and it was like I'm here.

• Kevin Guardado:

  I'm excited about going to Western University. And that was my dream, to be honest. And I really worked hard for it. And now that I that I got it, I just feel so proud.

• Shriya Garg:

  I'm very proud of all the hard work and all the effort that it took to get here. But I'm also very proud of the people and the support system that also helped me get here.

• Patrick Baughman:

  My most proud moment was my valedictorian speech. I made a proclamation for trans rights and against banned books. And I held up "This Book is Gay," which is a book that was recently banned within my district. And I gave it to the superintendent himself.

• Shriya Garg:

  I definitely learned how to just be myself, focus on your grades and focus on the classes. But also focus on things that you're passionate about, and things that you think are teaching you the life skills that you need to know.

• Ericka Henriquez:

  My biggest advice for anybody is like to always be humble, and like never compare yourself, or your success, no matter if like, you want to be on top or on the bottom, but never compare yourself to anybody.

• Kevin Guardado:

  Get out of your comfort zone. And that's where you can meet your real self.

• Muna Abanoor (through translator):

  I want to become a social worker, and I want to work in schools so I can work with kids like me, kids with mental health issues. I want to work with deaf, BIPOC and minority people.

• Ericka Henriquez:

  … to spread my wings.

• Valerie Herniquez:

  And fly.

• Ericka Henriquez:

  And fly, I guess, yeah.

• Patrick Baughman:

  Make the change you want to see. Support love, support human rights, support trans rights, support everything. Because at the end of the day, we're the ones making the difference. We're the ones who are going to find peace in the world.

• Kevin Guardado:

  Pursue your dreams, make mistakes.

• Valerie Herniquez:

  Like I know that our world has a lot of like fixing to do, but I really like I really trust our generation, our generation, Generation Z. And I feel like we have like a voice that we found and we're not afraid to use it.

• Patrick Baughman:

  We're not as interested in the idea of the workforce or making money to survive, or having families. We're interested in the ideas of doing what we want to do. And we're breaking the norms in that sense.

• Muna Abanoor (through translator):

  I think a lot of people look at us and say we can't do it. You're too young. But I'm telling you, we will change the world.