WJA News
Leon Harris Inspires as 7th WJA Graduation Speaker
Award-winning broadcast journalist Leon Harris served as WJA’s seventh graduation speaker on May 25th, 2011.
Rather than speak out to the general audience of parents, faculty, Board members, and sponsors, Mr. Harris turned to address the graduates directly on stage.
Invoking his own experiences from adolescence and college, Mr. Harris inspired WJA’s graduates with several life lessons and words of advice. Some of these lessons included telling our graduates to try to “learn anything that interests you.” Mr. Harris also warned students to be careful who they carry with them through life; “Don’t keep people in your life who only tell you what you CAN’T do…invest in yourself, and surround youself with others who believe in themselves.”
Mr. Harris anchors the 5:00pm and 11:00pm newscasts for ABC7 / WJLA and spent 20 years anchoring and hosting news productions at CNN. He has earned CableAce awards, as well as national and regional Emmy Awards. He joins an elite list of WJA graduation speakers, including US Attorney General Eric Holder, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Georgetown Men’s Basketball Coach John Thompson III.