Graduation is around the corner and as the day draws near, reality sets in. Seniors find themselves excited to leave but wondering, what comes next? This question arises each year, and each year the graduation speaker attempts to answer it.

This year, that speaker will be none other than our very own Mrs. Kimberly Feher. According to Mrs. Feher, the main goal for her speech is to inspire students to dream, persevere, and reach their full potential regardless of the path they end up taking.

Mrs. Feher has been a member of the Paint Branch community all of her life. She attended Galway Elementary School, Banneker – when it was still a junior high school rather than a middle school – and was one of just over three hundred ninth graders to walk through the doors of the old Paint Branch building in 1988 when the school became a 9-12 student body.

In the many years since, she has been a student, an athlete, a math teacher, a Poms coach, an assistant athletic director, the head of the math department, and a staff development teacher here at PB. She has also been an active member in the community as a parent when her son attended Burtonsville Elementary from kindergarten to 5th grade. She has been a teacher in MCPS for 22 years, and she has taught math at PB for 17 of those years. She has taught every course from Algebra 1 to Calculus, with the exception of Statistics. It is safe to say that this year’s grad speaker understands just what students in the Class of 2018 are thinking and feeling.

When asked if she was surprised to be chosen to be the graduation speaker this year, Mrs. Feher responded that she, “was very surprised, especially since she only teaches a few seniors this year.” However, she notes that “as she walked through the halls in the days after being asked, she realized she does still keep in contact with many current seniors that she taught in previous years.”
While being chosen to deliver the commencement address may have been a surprise, she does not plan to take it any less seriously. “Speaking at graduation is a big deal, alumni or not! I am honored to be given this opportunity,” she notes.

As the senior class prepares to leave the halls of Paint Branch, Mrs. Feher feels that students should access everything they have learned in their academic career. She says, “Put to good use what you’ve learned these past 12 years. Not just what we’ve taught you from the curriculum, but also the life lessons you’ve learned in the classroom or the lunchroom, on the field or on the stage, in the gym or in the studio, on the job or in your home. Be the best you!”