Campus News
Montes Inspires 8th Graders with Graduation Keynote Speech
(Continued from Bulletin home page)
"I personally feel I am a role model for these students having just graduated from Arcadia and (getting ready for) graduate school," say Montes. "Students need to hear and see a role model. Success is not just about reaching a goal; it's about reaching the goal and helping others as well. I don't forget where I come from and will work to do what I can when any opportunity to give back to my community as the opportunity arises."
In April, Montes was one of the student speakers at the Countdown to Arcadia luncheon. Ellen Cohen, a teacher at Julia de Burgos, was attending Countdown with her daughter, who will be attending Arcadia in Fall 2009.
"Cohen was amazed with my speech," says Montes. "She came up to me and asked me if I would like to speak to her students at the elementary/middle school where she works. Later that same day, she saw me at the library and asked me if I would be the keynote speaker at the middle school graduation in May."
One other person who thought Montes' Countdown was inspirational was Jeff Ewing, Dean of Students. "Jeff Ewing told me that it was one of the best speeches he had ever heard at a Countdown event," said Montes. What a nice compliment to hear and to have someone see something great in you is nice."
Montes paid a visit to the middle school during the week before the graduation and met with Cohen. "I told her that I wanted to speak with the students before giving my graduation speech to give the students some background about myself and to also ask the students if there was something they would want to tell their parents, what that would be, so that the students didn't have a random stranger speaking to them," says Montes.
"The responses from the students were what I sort of knew I was going to get, but still in a way it made me sad and yet motivated me, too," says Montes. "Students were saying things like, 'I don't like it when they compare me to other people.' Other students said that they had parents who were not supportive of their dreams. Students talked about how life is hard with everything on the streets, and they don't think we are doing anything but we really are, like we do work.
"Another student spoke of a dream to do something in the medical field and be an actor, but the student's mother was not supportive. One student asked me, 'What do you do when they tell you, you can't?'
"It's amazing," says Montes, "that these students are only 13 or 14 years old. What was really nice is that in the short time I was with some of the students, for just a day, I became like an automatic mentor. They talked to me about their life and asked me for guidance. That's what many students need.
"I know through working in the Community Service Office at Arcadia that Arcadia students who go out to volunteer at these community schools can really impact the life of a child," says Montes.
"I shared with these students my experiences. I told them about how my father barely speaks English, a mother who is just completing her master's after having six children, a family that was scared when I decided to leave the country to study abroad, my experience climbing the mountain while doing research in Equatorial Guinea, and being able to graduate in three years with three degrees, one a bachelor's degree in English with a minor in Spanish from Arcadia, and two associate degrees from the Community College of Philadelphia, and mentioned I chose to be one less stereotype."
The theme of Montes' graduation speech was one of faith and hope. It was a message not only to the students but to the parents, family, and friends. It was encouragement for those parents to have vision, to see beyond their hard circumstances and let their children do great things even though they may have never been able to achieve that same goal. It was in a way a call to action because their children need them to be supportive.
Montes is bilingual and delivered her speech in English but translated some parts into Spanish. She said, "I remembered one of the key things I wanted to tell the audience, Vales mas de lo que piensas. It means you are worth more than you think. I guess it's something unusual to say in an address, but it was important. The point was to have vision and because they are worth it."
At the end of the graduation Montes spoke to some of the teachers and parents who told her they thought it was an amazing very motivational speech. "Right on point! It was nice to hear from young girls," was one comment.
When it was time to go, Montes said she waited by the Septa stop as she did many times as an Arcadia student just trying to accomplish a dream, and she knew she had made a difference. "My diploma was not just that piece of paper that said I graduated. It was the pass to go out and change lives one day at a time," said Montes.