My name is Todd Levarse, and I am the Speech & Communications teacher at Plum High School. I took note of your email because I wanted the opportunity to thank you for coming in to speak. It is rare that an audience of 17 & 18 year olds, some about to graduate in a month, is that captivated by a speaker. I fully intend to discuss the speech further in my class tomorrow and ask what made the speech so effective (and it was effective; even the goofiest of students were seriously thinking about your message after the presentation). I was actually unaware of the topic heading into the assembly, but I stayed through two planning periods in order to listen to it in its entirety. I have the feeling that a vast majority of the students, even if they had the choice to leave, would have voluntarily stayed too.

Thank you very much again for coming to talk to us.

Todd Levarse