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President Wong, Dean Munter, distinguished faculty, family, friends, and fellow members of the Class of 2015, first and foremost, I want to thank you, my classmates, for nominating me as the Education Doctorate recognition ceremony cohort speaker. I am truly honored and humbled by your recognition. As I reflect on our time together, I feel truly grateful to have been part of the 2012 cohort. We began our studies August 2012, and at that point, many of us did not know what to expect, we did not know if we would be able to manage the academic course load and much less knew how we would manage our working and personal lives. We embarked on the doctorate journey and at the conclusion of our first year; we shared a toast to May 2015. Today, we are here and what a truly incredible journey this has been. At some point, we were all confronted with challenges, be those personal, academic or professional, but it is our passion, persistence and drive which allows us to share this moment today.
Celebrating Our Accomplishments
We are here to celebrate our accomplishments and honor the time we have shared as classmates. Many sacrifices have been made in order to attend classes every other weekend and truly engage in critical dialogue. Oftentimes, we heard from our professors that we were unlike any other cohort because we were relaxed, kind and respectful. We did not always agree on certain views, issues or perspectives, but we engaged in insightful conversations. We began as a cohort, but as the years went on, we became friends, and today I can honestly say we have become a family. As a family, we feel joy when one of us achieves a promotion, recognition or obtains that employment position we have been working to achieve...There are many talents we have in the 2012 cohort but it is not in our individuality that we have grown and gained strength, rather in the collective. The collective is always stronger than the individual and together we have persevered.
We all come from different walks of life, but one thing that is true for all of us is that family is important. We would not be here today if we did not count with the unconditional support and love of our family and life partners. While it is true that we often missed family gatherings, we never forgot about who we were doing this for. I know that each and every person that is in this room today is important and played a critical role in our ability to achieve this important milestone. On behalf of my classmates, I want to thank you for being here today and sharing with us this special day.
Today I am filled with joy to know that our desire to pursue a doctorate degree is fueled by our passion to ensure social justice and equity for ALL students. As we continue our professional journeys, we must never forget that students are counting on us to advocate for them. Many students are dealing with invalidation wounds, while others are led to believe THEY are the problem. In our day-to-day discussions, I urge all of us to constantly keep students at the forefront of what we do because our students represent the future. Regardless of whether we work at a K-12 institution, a California Community College, a UC, a CSU, a private university or an educational non-profit, students are counting on us to advocate for them. Every interaction we have with students represents an opportunity to heal students from past invalidation wounds and confirm to them that they posses skills, abilities and talents that allow them to achieve educational success.
Cari�o
Student validation, cari�o, which means genuine caring, and critical hope, as many of you know, are at the heart of the work I strive to achieve on a daily basis and represent the heart of my dissertation. I feel so strongly about such concepts because more than concepts, they are expressions of love. I have been fortunate to meet educators and mentors that embody and exemplify validation, cari�o and critical hope. In our work, we must never forget that we are dealing with humans, be those administrators, faculty, or students that have feelings. When we engage in such work, it might be disregarded as being "too touchy feely," but are we not humans that have feelings? Our past, present and future students have feelings and it is our responsibility to ensure that social justice and equity is achieved for all. Will engaging in such work be easy? It will probably not, but we must not forget that this doctorate program and our life experiences have prepared us to become educational leaders. During these three years we have learned to be bold, to be confident, to take initiative, to embrace change, to take risks, to be present, to maintain our integrity, to find our passion, to trust ourselves, to believe WE CAN and most importantly of all, to follow our heart. Will we make mistakes? We probably will, but it is in the failures where growth and learning takes place. We cannot be paralyzed by our fear of change. I feel proud of all of my classmates, my family, because I know you are all change agent.
I look forward to our continued success and before I conclude, I want you to thank each and every one of you here today for your continuous encouragement and support. It truly made a difference in my life and for that, I will forever be grateful to the 2012 cohort. Thank you and congratulations to the Class of 2015!
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