News Detail
Freshman Honors Night Features Michael McDermott '11
Freshman Honors Night was held on Tuesday night with more than 700 people in attendance. Recent graduate Michael McDermott ’11 was the guest speaker. During his time at La Salle Academy, Michael was a gifted student and athlete receiving such honors as the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Medal for Engineering and the Golden-Dozen Scholar-Athlete award for football.
When asked if he would consider speaking to the freshmen, he replied, “I am very excited and thankful that you have given me the opportunity to give a little bit back to the place that has given me everything.” Michael is currently a freshman at Carnegie Mellon University pursuing a triple major in Materials Science & Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Pre-medicine. In addition, he is a member of the football team and both indoor and outdoor track and field teams.
Freshman Honors Night was held on Tuesday night with more than 700 people in attendance. Recent graduate Michael McDermott ’11 was the guest speaker. During his time at La Salle Academy, Michael was a gifted student and athlete receiving such honors as the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Medal for Engineering and the Golden-Dozen Scholar-Athlete award for football.
When asked if he would consider speaking to the freshmen, he replied, “I am very excited and thankful that you have given me the opportunity to give a little bit back to the place that has given me everything.” Michael is currently a freshman at Carnegie Mellon University pursuing a triple major in Materials Science & Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Pre-medicine. In addition, he is a member of the football team and both indoor and outdoor track and field teams.
During his speech to the freshmen, Michael imparted these valuable insights: “The traditions at La Salle are a legacy that cannot be broken, and a legacy that is continued on by each and every generation of students that walks these halls. As freshmen, you may not think that anything you do has a great impact on this school, or that any action you take now has any lasting impact on the next four years,” he said. “Take a moment to think about La Salle Academy as a great big canvas. Each and every one of you, by the time you leave here, will have left a fingerprint upon that canvas. No matter how light or how defined that fingerprint is, it will be there and it is permanent. That fingerprint is your legacy here at La Salle Academy, and it consists of your reputation, both academically and socially, as well as your achievements, triumphs and inevitable failures.”
“Your legacy is not something thrown together in your senior year, rather it is something steadily built from the moment you walked through those doors this year, to the moment you leave them as a graduate. Every action you take, every relationship you build, every chapter you write here at La Salle becomes part of that book that is your legacy,” continued Michael. “The importance of this legacy has less to do with athletics, or theatre, or any extra-curriculars, for at the end of the day we do not remember who scored the most touchdowns, or who had the lead role in the play, but rather you are remembered for your character, what kind of student you were, and what kind of person you were.”
“Did you use your gifts and talents to their fullest during your time here? Did you give it everything you had? Did you make the most out of every opportunity placed before you? If the answer to that question is yes, at the end of the day you can look yourself in the mirror and be proud of what you see. That is true success. This is your time to develop relationships that will last a lifetime. Leave with no regrets. Take each and every experience here at La Salle and plant it in your memory box...because as I now know...before you are ready, before you can blink, before you want it to be...it is behind you,” concluded Michael.
The Class of 2015 would like to thank Michael for all that he has done and all that he continues to do for La Salle Academy.
La Salle Academy is a high school rich in history and grounded in the person and teachings of Jesus and the Catholic faith, which are core to the school's life and culture. The De La Salle Middle School provides a strong holistic foundation for students to transition into high school. The high school and middle school provide students of diverse ethnic, economic, and religious backgrounds, a community to foster growth in the tradition of St. John Baptist de La Salle’s ideals of faith, service, and community.
