Recently I had the honor of being invited to a special ceremony honoring some of the St. Croix Central High students who were graduating this year. This ceremony was celebrated at the Diago Center and was organized by the Estate Profit Action Committee. The selected group were graduates from Estate Profit, The Harvey Community and Estate Clifton Hill. The committee visited the homes in these three communities and personally invited the young adults to a night of awards and festivities.
Among the invitees were The Who’s Who in the Hispanic political arena, some of this year’s political aspirants and government officials, including high ranking officials of the Department of Education.
I wondered about the significance of this event until the prepared program started and it became evident that the organizers have recognized that their young adults in their community are barely graduating from high school and have no aspirations to further their education by attending a college or university.
One of the main speakers was the CEO of the Juan F. Luis Hospital, a welfare mother of six, (Her words) who decided to go back to school after having her children and faced the challenge of providing for them. She went back to school and obtained a Master’s degree. The words resonating during her emotional, dramatic and absorbing speech was determination. Determination to jump over the many hurdles living in the United States being a minority with an island Spanglish accent and according, to her word, not being very smart. She pointed out that her success became evident when she finally saw the respect of her teachers and peers. That motivated her to apply herself even more and push forward to reach her goals.
All the graduates being honored were allowed to say a few short words and amid tears and emotional statements many shared the same stories. They were raised by a single parent, by their grandparents or by parents who worked so hard to support their household, they barely had time to help with school work. The students were grateful they accomplished this milestone in their life.
A UVI 2018 graduate, from Estate Profit, raised by her grandmother had the most to say, “I told myself I would succeed and be the first person in my family to earn a degree and I got it. It was hard, but with determination, I did it!” Her speech was fifteen minutes long and the pack room was mesmerized by her words while drying tears discreetly.
The closing remarks of the President of the organization mainly focused on the “it takes a village to raise a child mentality” and pledged to these young graduates to help them get the resources necessary to further their education.
At the end of the event, I spoke to the President of the committee, he said their efforts have generated eight students in UVI last year, and the student’s commitment is strong. He said, “For this community 8 is like 800, the mentality of many of these parents is that a high school diploma is enough. We decided to intervene to see more of our youth get degrees and turn this way of thinking around.”
To wrap up my story, we too, the class of 1979 have decided to intervene. We have pledged to raise funds for a scholarship to impact the life of a student this year as well as the next. Let’s also remain determined and focus on this goal. What we are doing goes further than we can imagine. We are making a difference in a student’s life.
Be a part of the Scholarship project and donate just click on this link and make your donation,
https://www.chscl79.org/get-involved/scholarship/
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