On Wednesday, October 12, the senior class was treated with a presentation by public speaker Mark Scharenbroich. Far from the normal stereotype of a professional public speaker, Scharenbroich gave a motivational speech that managed to entertain as well as educate.

The main focus of Scharenbroich’s speech was appreciating others and putting aside differences in order to make senior year the best it can be. He delivered the message “stop counting crayons and just draw pictures” with standup comic-like timing, and turned what could have been just another boring school assembly into an enjoyable, hilarious one-man skit. As his speech went on, it became increasingly obvious that Scharenbroich is excellent at what he does.

Scharenbroich travels the country inspiring various groups and throughout his career has visited more than 3500 schools. He has also been recognized for his talents and has been inducted into the National Speakers Association (NSA) Hall of Fame, won the Council of Peers Award from the NSA, is an NSA Certified Speaking Professional, and was inducted into the Minnesota Speakers Hall of Fame.

No award in the world, however, makes the task of entertaining an entire class of high school seniors easy, but the roars of laughter and crowd screaming “BOOMBA…HEY!” heard in the gym that morning made it apparent that Scharenbroich was well received by the class of 2006.

“He definitely made an impact on a lot of seniors,” said senior Melissa Joda “It was the first time a lot of us actually thought that this is truly our final year, that this is the last time we are spending together as a class”

Scharenbroich truly taught many valuable lessons that will carry on throughout the seniors’ last year at Arrowhead. Hopefully Scharenbroich’s presence at Arrowhead will become an annual occurrence so he can share his messages about living life with future senior classes.