March 2011 Graduate Address by Daniel Villanueva

October 2010 Graduate Address by Maryam Solaqa

Good afternoon and thank you for coming to celebrate this day with us.  My name is Maryam Solaqa and I am pleased to represent this trimester's graduating class and the final group in the class of 2010 here at Urban Corps.  For many of you, this is the first time visiting our wonderful facility and I hope that you take the times to learn more about what Urban Corps provides the communities of San Diego.  We have all been blessed to be a part of this program and having visitors really allows us to showcase the hard work we do in order to get to days like this.

As you know, this program is about second chances.  Each of us has come from a place where the path in our lives took a difficult turn, but we were lucky, because many people who experience these turns never find their second chance to get back on track.  However, those of us before you in caps and gowns are examples of the ones who made it back to the right path, and we come from all walks of life.
Some in this class turned down the difficult path of single parenthood.  They had to drop out to care for their child.  Society told them they had to make money; that there was no time from school.  However, today’s graduates that have traveled this path chose differently; more so for their children than themselves they found the way to Urban Corps and their diploma. 

Others before you were incarcerated and had a hard time finding an organization that would hire them and a school that would accept them; a place that would not take their past and use it against them.  Society and the streets told them the only way to make it was to go back to violence and crime.  However, today’s graduates that traveled this path chose differently.  They got a call from the Urban Corps who said they didn’t care about their record, that they could have an opportunity to earn a meager wage through on-the- job training, as well as earn their high school diploma if they would show up and do the work; and they did.
Others before you just couldn’t get off the couch.  Drugs and alcohol, or perhaps just their insecurity and lack of self esteem, kept them tied down.  Bad influences controlled their lives until the day they saw the Urban Corps ad in the Penny Saver or a heard about the program from a relative or friend.  They learned they could earn a paycheck and a diploma.  The bad influences tried to keep them on that couch; however, today’s graduates that traveled this path chose to get up.

I myself was a refugee.  If you are my age and new to this country you are asked to help the family; usually by getting a job with a relative to help pay rent.  You are told high school is from children.  Society says it is too late for you and that it will be too difficult to master English.  But like my fellow graduates, I too did not listen. So yes, as a class we have traveled down a multitude of difficult paths; paths that would have lead us to dead ends.  But today is a milestone in the journey of finding our way back to a positive path and a future of endless possibilities.    We have stopped listening to what “society” tells us we cannot do.  We are creating our own paths, built through hard work, dedication, and a commitment to our dreams.  From this day forward we will no longer be defined by the difficult turns in the past, and we can look to the future with optimism.  It might sound odd but in a unique way we are thankful for those difficult turns that came to us early in life.  Now that we have navigated our way to this day we know that we are stronger and wiser than others like us.  The difficult turns in our path make this day all the more powerful, and we can use this power to propel ourselves into our future successes. 

Thank you, shukran, gracias, aksante, for being a part of this memorable day. 

Two of our upcoming June graduates were accepted into the Price Scholarship at San Diego City College. They competed with other high school seniors in the San Diego area for these awards. Congratulations to Angel Amaya and Zahira "Janet" Idelfonso! We are very proud.

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