As we celebrate our graduates this spring, we hear many powerful stories about their experience—both in college and in life. More often than not, they’re stories of overcoming significant obstacles to reach their dreams.
We get to hear from some of these students during our graduations ceremonies. We call them our “Voices.” This week, we’ll be sharing several of their speeches with you here.
We hope you learn something worthwhile from each our our graduate’s voices.
Diana Garcia—Associate of Applied Science in Computer Information Systems
While I was very honored to be invited to be a graduation speaker, I admit that writing this speech was harder than writing my final for Ms. King’s class. And believe me, I would have never imagined that there would be anything harder than that.
We were only 14 years old when we made the biggest decision of our lives: joining P-TECH. In P-TECH we saw many opportunities that were suddenly presented to us. Many of us are first-generation students who are graduating from high school and continuing our education by going to college.
Having college classes at the high school level was very stressful. There were many nights where we would look at questions for so long that we wanted to cry; many of us did.
Even though we cried, we were always together—we became a family. Moments like these are what make P-TECH important.
I remember texting my friend saying I wanted to quit, but I knew if I did I would’ve lost so much. We all pushed till the end and look at us now—today we graduate with our Associate of Applied Science degree and make our families proud.
If it wasn’t for P-TECH I wouldn’t have met all of the great people who have supported me. I can’t name them all, but I know some of you might be able to relate with me when I say: Ms. March, Dr. Ed Polak, Dr. Debby, Mr. Lund, Ms. Zackavec, Ms. King—and I can’t forget Mr. Jaworski who helped me with my college essay.
I will continue my education by attending CU-Boulder, to pursue my career in medicine.
Hoy me paro frente a ustedes para contarles mis logros, pero estos logros no hubieran sido posibles sin mis padres. Cruzaron la frontera para que yo pudiera cruzar el escenario esta noche. Sus consejos y apoyo me ayudaron a convertirme en lo que soy hoy y en la persona en la que me convertiré. Esas alas que me dieron por fin serán usadas, hoy comienzo un nuevo capítulo en mi vida. Gracias mamá y papa.
Our journey does not stop here, we still have a long way to go. One thing I can take from P-TECH is that everything is possible.
We are starting a new chapter in our lives.
Congratulations class of 2022.
