April 4, 2016 – Southville International School and Colleges hosted the 19th High School Commencement Exercises at the Luxembourg Hall, Las Piñas City, for Grades 11 and 12.

The graduation ceremony awarded the graduating class of 2016 with their high school diploma and recognized Loyalty and Perfect Attendance, PASS, Values Excellence, Sen. Manny Villar Excellence, Athlete of the Year, AFSL, MUN Coaching and Public Speaking, Junior Ambassador of Peace, Academic Subjects and the Honors awardees with medals and certificates.

Atty. Karen Jimeno McBride, a celebrity lawyer, was invited as guest speaker for the ceremonies.

In her message to the graduates, Atty. Karen emphasized the need to form different standards for success based on what truly matters to us, and recognize our achievements, and forgive one’s self when things don’t go his/her way.

Atty. Karen also reiterated that the graduates should embrace their failures because it can help them be a better version of themselves and to avoid what she called the “fake success” of succeeding in things that would not matter in the bigger picture.

The crowd broke into loud applause when Chan Hee was announced as the class valedictorian of Batch 2016.

In his speech, Chan Hee compared the language barrier as a sword that slayed his grades in each subject, but that he used the challenge as inspiration to press on.

“The words swam and I had to learn to swim with it. Now, the words made sense. I understand them and I conquered my subjects. Without tenacity, I cannot not overcome all of these. Thomas Edison said, ‘Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.’ While going through all of the challenges, I felt like giving up so many times, but I pressed on”, Chan Hee said.