This week, high schools across the five boroughs have been celebrating College Decision Day. This day is an amazing opportunity to congratulate our high school seniors for years of hard work, and to come together to support them as they make a very big decision: what’s next after graduation!
Across New York City, a record number of students are graduating high school and going on to college. On College Decision Day, as we celebrate, we are also building on this progress and paving the path to our goal of College Access for All. As seniors make their college choices, and as their school communities cheer them on, younger students are watching. They are thinking about their own paths to college and careers, and seeing their role models successfully apply for and enroll in college.
Seniors, I want to thank you and share how proud I am of you. On a personal level, so many of your stories remind me of my own.
Like many of you, I started school not knowing a word of English. My mom was a hairdresser, and my dad was a sheet-metal worker and builder. My mom had a high school diploma, and my dad never finished school but went back and got his GED to set an example for me and my brother. Yet they believed in the power of education, and they told me and my twin brother, “You are going to college.”
When I graduated from high school, my brother and I visited the University of Arizona—which we would both attend and graduate from—for the first time with our parents. I remember walking through a big, green college campus full of beautiful buildings. To my surprise, my father looked around and began to call out all of the buildings by name. I asked him with astonishment, “How do you know all of these buildings so well?” He replied, “Mijo, I helped to build many of these buildings. I know them inside and out—and never did I think that I would come back here as the father of two students. Before today, I only came here to work.”
As you get ready to move on to college and careers, so many of you will be the first—the first to go to college, to graduate from college, to get a professional certificate or join the military, to pursue college or a career outside of New York City.
Remember the sacrifices your families have made to help you get here, and to reach your potential. Thank them. And please take a moment to thank the teachers, counselors and school staff who’ve made you feel valued and pushed you forward day in and day out. I also hope that you’ll stay involved in your community and your school, paying it forward and being a mentor for children who look up to you and need all the support you can offer.
We all believe in you. We believe that you will lead our communities and our entire country to a better place. Thank you for brightening our schools, our homes and our lives, and congratulations on your next steps. We are so proud of you.
