Commencement speech: School may not be for everyone, but education is.

Drake Commencement speech delivery on December 14, 2024.

Good morning, Class of 2024 and Esteemed Guests,

It is both a privilege and honor to speak with you this morning. This is my third graduation in this building. The first time I walked across this stage was in 2013, when I graduated from high school. That day that I became obsessed with the concept of graduation. That’s what kept me motivated during my undergrad at Drake to graduate with my bachelor’s degree in 2017 and here I am again, at another Drake graduation, and probably my last, earning my Master’s in Business Administration in the exact same building that I did almost 11 years ago.

So why do I love graduations so much?

I believe graduations are one of the very few events where we see adults become little kids again. Think about it, we nervously walk out to a packed building, we look around to find our loved ones in the crowd. Most of the time they are never sitting on the side that they said they were. As we see a familiar face, we light up like a kid who found their parents after being lost in a store. The claps and cheers feel like a warm embrace. We are overwhelmed with joy, seeing every person who showed up to celebrate with us today.

If your parents are present today, I can guarantee that when you see your graduate on stage today, you will think back at the little kid that you dropped off at school for the first time a couple or few decades ago.

It’s still a very intimate occasion, because only we know what we had to do to get here.

Only we know the sacrifice and mental strength we had to build to keep going.

Or many times we thought about quitting.

The financial struggles we endured.

And only we know who helped us along the way.

Today is the day we have been dreaming about since the first time we login into Blackboard or made our first discussion post.

Each of us are a testament that we can do hard things and we can do them well.

In this room alone, we have attorneys, doctors, pharmacists, nonprofit leaders, business leaders, healthcare workers, educators and artists.

Looking at your today is why struggle to accept the idea school is not for everyone. Of course, school does not come easy to all of us and was not built with everyone’s unique learning abilities in mind, but education is universal.

School simply formalizes the teaching, while education is the knowledge we came here to find.

The knowledge to understand the world around us.

In theory, school was not build for many of us. Some of us might be first-generation student, might come from modest means, maybe considered a non-traditional student, we might be very different yet we all had a desire to achieve our education that was stronger than the barriers along the way.

A perfect example of this notion are the graduates that began their college journey while the world faced a global pandemic. Giving up was an option because the way we do school changed overnight, yet they adjust and continue. Our world will be a better place thanks to your generation’s resiliency.

So yes maybe school was not for many of us, but education always was.

Education can change the trajectory of your entire family lineage.

That is why I, a proud immigrant from El Salvador, who grew up with limited resources and whose first language is not English, stand before you today to deliver this message.

My parents often said that education is the most valuable inheritance any parent can leave their children with. It is the one thing that no one can take away from you. It is the intangible wealth we are all walking away with today.

Graduations like ours remind me that a world were education can be accessible to everyone, regardless of their age, household income, legal status, age, learning disability and family obligations.

So to anyone sitting in the stands today, no matter how old you are, if you have ever wonder if you could earn a college degree, allow me to tell you that it is possible and there is a future version of you that is already sitting on this floor waiting to receive your degree. Just as there was a version of us who got to make today a reality.

And to our loved ones, thank you!

Gracias por todo su amor y apoyo. Este logro fue posible porque representamos lo mejor de ustedes. Este es nuestro logro.

Thank you for your love and support. This accomplishment is ours and it was possible because we represent the best qualities of our families.

My fellow graduates.

I am proud of you. May your achievement inspire others. Use your education to create the life you deserve and the world that can and should be.

Thank you very much.