2019 Valedictorian, Jair Pendenque, of the Dominica State College said, “I am not here to deliver a good speech, I am here to be real…Fairy tales didn’t get us to where we are now. Hard work got us to this point and I think that it is high time that we pay a tribute to our hard work”.
She says that although she doesn’t like school, she understands that one has to be able to prove one’s knowledge and that’s done with a degree. This is one reason that she is here today, to get her paper to be able to prove that she knows what she says she knows. She is also here because of all those who worked hard and struggled to send her to school.
Pendenque said that she was pleasantly surprised when she received the news that she was the Valedictorian. She went into detail about the struggles that she went through. Pendenque spoke honestly of not having toilet facilities, of sleeping on mattresses on the floor with her mother and sisters, giving jokes to take their minds off the hunger that they were experiencing, of having to credit groceries and bus rides or of having no food or school supplies or other luxuries to attend school.
Pendenque said that if she had to do it over again she would do it because these hardships made her into the young lady that she is today. ” Those hardships taught me that despite the billions of people who will turn away when others need help, there is a God who will never leave me nor forsake me and he has carried me through.”
She beseeched her fellow students to ” look past the struggles which you now face, will face and have faced and appreciate what you have today, appreciate and recognize the people who have believed in you, the struggles that have built your resolve and determination to succeed. It is because of these hardships that I stand here today, not merely as a Valedictorian but as a representative of all that my country can be, a representative of the struggles of the Dominican people.”
Emonews congratulates Jair Pendenque and wishes her great success. She is indeed destined for great things. Looking forward to writing more about you, Jair.
Photos compliment Jerome Jordan
