President Brian Casey will speak at the commencement of Indianapolis's Park Tudor School this June.
While Casey does not typically speak at high school graduations, he agreed to speak at the Park Tudor ceremony because of DePauw University's strong ties with the school. Thirty-two students entered DePauw after graduating from Park Tudor between 2006-2010, according to data from the Office of Institutional Research.
Park Tudor asked Casey to speak for similar reasons. The school feels that Casey will be a perfect fit as a commencement speaker because of the school's strong friendship with DePauw and also their strongly identification with the university and its values.
"I think Park Tudor and DePauw are similar in a multitude of ways," said Lisa Hendrickson, a spokeswoman for Park Tudor. "Both offer an excellent education, emphasize service and provide a closely knit community for students."
Casey will be one of five speakers at the commencement ceremony. Also speaking will be the current student council president, a Park Tudor faculty member, an alumnus of the high school and the head of school. Casey will be able to add to the ceremony by lending the graduates helpful advice on launching their college careers, according to Hendrickson.
"We chose Brian Casey to be one of the speakers for the ceremony because we thought he would be able to impart wisdom about the qualities that are important in college and also the value of a liberal arts education," Hendrickson continued.
When giving a commencement speech, the necessary elements are to speak to the students and also to keep it short — no longer than 12 minutes, Casey said. He is still planning his speech and has not decided exactly what he wants to say to the students, but he is sure it will come to him.
"I just haven't written it," Casey said in mid February. "Go forth and be brave, right?"
The staff and students look forward to Casey's speech and highly anticipate what he will have to say, Hendrickson said.
The graduation ceremony will take place June 3 at the St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Indianapolis.