Graduation: Sam’s Tear Jerking Speech
The Juice Academy’s first cohort of budding social media stars graduated in July and have all been offered employment at their company after continually delivering impressive results since joining the programme a year ago! To celebrate, we threw them a graduation party to remember.
Congratulations to graduates Chloe Mitchell, Jordan Rudge, Alex Morton, Joe Seabridge, Liam Weaver, Samantha Hutchinson, Carly Phillips, Robert Watts, Tom Bedson, and Jordan Gray.
Smoking Gun PR’s social media apprentice Samantha Hutchinson delivered this tear jerking speech which had the audience in tears.
“A year ago we were a group of young people with big ideas and big ambitions. We knew we wanted to work in digital, what we didn’t know was how to get there. Mostly school leavers with little experience, we just needed someone to give us a chance.
“That’s what The Juice Academy did. It looked beyond our age and our years of ‘earned experience’ and instead acknowledged our position as digital natives, crediting us for our sheer determination and the skills we’d developed just by doing what we do. Smartphones in hand, day in day out.
“Today, we’re a year wiser. We’ve attended debates, took part in debates, spoken on stage and networked with industry experts; not only developing but proving our grasp of the industry.
“We’ve got some big thank yous to give for the phenomenal year we’ve had.
“We’d like to thank Sandy Lindsay, the team at Tangerine PR and the academy’s advisory board for supporting not only The Juice Academy, but us as individuals throughout the year. For introducing us to some incredible industry insiders. And for telling the digital world just how capable we really are.
“We’d like to thank Total People and our Juice Academy tutors for respecting us as young adults and never treating us like school children.
“We’d like to thank our employers for believing in us right from Boot Camp and guiding us through our first year in the industry.
“A big thank you to Lucy and Liz, for keeping it all running like clockwork.
“And finally, to every one who gave us their time, attention and support in our first year - giving talks at The Academy, attending our events and dropping us a tweet to say how awesome we are every now and again.
“As for what happens next, I think it’s safe to say that we’re not short of choice. The opportunities we’ve had this year are just the tip of the iceberg, and it’s exciting to picture just where we might be in 5, 10, 15 years time.
“I’d like to think we’ll still be in touch, facing the digital world as Cohort 1, watching Cohort 35 tweet about Boot Camp from whatever strange device we’ll all be using by then."
