{"id":313134,"date":"2024-06-02T15:31:36","date_gmt":"2024-06-02T20:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=313134"},"modified":"2024-06-03T09:40:11","modified_gmt":"2024-06-03T14:40:11","slug":"colorado-commencement-speaker-down-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/colorado-commencement-speaker-down-syndrome\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado high school senior with Down syndrome makes history as commencement speaker"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Peer support and a local community&#8217;s embrace and acceptance enabled Jillian Ball to graduate high school and eloquently deliver this year\u2019s commencement address to an audience of 500, including her classmates and their guests. Ball, a high school senior in Broomfield, Colorado, was granted the honor after a selection process including a \u201ctryout\u201d in April. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Her achievement was especially moving to the listeners and to Ball\u2019s family, because she was diagnosed with Down syndrome shortly after birth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Tc4urXA3Sus?si=QKiJz5jSMafOw0ai\" width=\"640\" height=\"355\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com\/article\/news\/local\/broomfield-high-school-commencement-speaker\/73-8d381053-112c-4857-bf28-6933f7a3bc74\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ball\u2019s mother<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Alexis, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;there was a lot of fear\u201d when her daughter was initially diagnosed, because they were uncertain \u201cwhat her journey was going to be like.&#8221; What the family came to realize was that \u201cher journey is not that different than everyone else&#8217;s.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In fact, Ball\u2019s schedule rivals that of many high school students and involves violin lessons, Girl Scouts awards and achievements, sports, and musical theater. Her message of gratitude resonates this graduation season; high school seniors across the country started their freshman year with masks and social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ:<\/strong> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doctors-pressured-abort-one-words-hope\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Doctors pressured us to abort at every visit, until one spoke words of hope we\u2019d never forget<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">True to her sincere and outgoing nature, Ball\u2019s speech was sprinkled with affirmations, humor, and an uplifting message. After rehearsing the speech almost <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com\/article\/news\/local\/broomfield-high-school-commencement-speaker\/73-8d381053-112c-4857-bf28-6933f7a3bc74\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">50 times<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, her hard efforts paid off. Many in the crowd were impressed, and she received a standing ovation at the end of her presentation. She is an inspiration not only to her community, but also to other families who have a child diagnosed with Down syndrome.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to a recent review of available literature, between <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC10031387\/#zoi230148r21\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">67% to 85%<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of individuals diagnosed with Down syndrome in the womb in America are aborted. But, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/ndss.org\/myths-truths\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Down Syndrome Society<\/a>, people with Down syndrome <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">attend school, work, participate in decisions that affect them, have meaningful relationships, vote, and contribute to society in many wonderful ways.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d A prenatal diagnosis should not be a<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/nearly-90-babies-down-syndrome-aborted-2021\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">death sentence<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Support for parents by local communities, schools, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/celebrate-people-down-syndrome-womb\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the media<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are an important step to welcoming children diagnosed with Down syndrome. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The tears of joy expressed at Jillian Ball\u2019s high school in response to her beautiful speech and the mutual admiration between her and her community make it clear that more of our neighbors with Down syndrome should be welcomed in life and society.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/actnow.io\/ARQQhk1\"><b><i>The DOJ put a pro-life grandmother in jail for protesting the killing of preborn children. Please take 30-seconds to TELL CONGRESS: STOP THE DOJ FROM TARGETING PRO-LIFE AMERICANS.<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Peer support and a local community&#8217;s embrace and acceptance enabled Jillian Ball to graduate high school and eloquently deliver this year\u2019s commencement address to an audience of 500, including her classmates and their guests. Ball, a high school senior in Broomfield, Colorado, was granted the honor after a selection process including a \u201ctryout\u201d in April. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":887,"featured_media":313162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[9455,3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Colorado high school senior with Down syndrome makes history as commencement speaker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jillian Ball, a Broomfield, Colorado high school senior with Down syndrome, was granted the honor of commencement speaker for her graduation.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/colorado-commencement-speaker-down-syndrome\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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