April Judd, 19, from Quebec, Canada won first price in Greater Good’s Girls’ Voices at Home Class of 2020 Challenge with a virtual commencement speech on the theme “How the coronavirus affected my final semester.”
The contest was open to high school and college seniors and received 379 submissions from girls in 49 different countries.
In her submission, Judd bemoans the fact that she didn’t get to put on her final stage production or say goodbye to some friends she may never see again. She also discusses the challenge of moving in with her parents after being gone for two years.
However, during the pandemic she had a powerful change in her mindset that’s inspired her to move forward in a bold way.
“I don’t want to go back to the way things were,” she says. “I want to have a heightened appreciation for all the things that make life full.”
April wants to be someone who finds beauty even the “less favorable hands that life deals us.” She ends the video with an empowering message for her fellow graduates, “We got this.”
April from Shawville, Quebec
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