Blake Morgan and Augusta O’Ferrall are now Mustangs. The graduating Oakdale Junior High School Rams spent their final days as students on the campus this past week, along with 320 other graduates.
Last Thursday evening however, the two were given the distinct honor of being the voice of the OJHS Class of 2015. Blake was chosen to give the Graduation Class Address and Augusta led with the Junior High Review.
According to OJHS Vice Principal Diana Crofts, nine students submitted requests of interest to be considered to speak. Five of the nine actually produced and presented speeches and from those five, Blake and Augusta were chosen.
Blake, an energetic 15-year-old and youngest of three was familiar with both the graduation setting of the Corral, as well as public speaking.
“I’m used to it,” he said of speaking to the large graduation crowd. “For our 4-H Club we do Public Speaking all the time in front of big crowds.”
The teen is an active member of 4-H interested most in sheep, public speaking, vet science and goats.
“My favorite subject I would have to say is English,” he confessed. “Before this year English was probably my worst overall and math was probably my favorite. But this year, my teacher Ms. Robinson has made it the best by far, because she’s just a great teacher.”
Fourteen-year-old Augusta has enjoyed her participation on the OJHS Pentathlon Team, an experience that gave her the opportunity to compete in the area of Speech. The recent junior high graduate has an appreciation for History, Math and English.
When addressing the topic of nervousness and public speaking, Augusta stated, “I thought it would be just 2,000 people and then Mr. Simons said it’s more like 5,000… so…we’ll see. I don’t know. We’ll see how that turns out.”
Both graduates are looking forward to both their future career at Oakdale High School as well as their education beyond that.
Blake has aspirations set on remaining in the field of agriculture, setting his sights on Oklahoma State and exploring a career in artificial insemination. Augusta is interested in a career in engineering, specifically looking to the development of prosthetics.
