Hello, my name is Maria Rosa. I am from the Dominican Republic. Am happy to be here tonight and to be given this opportunity to speak for my graduating class of 2006.

Like many people who come to America, I am a woman with many dreams of a better life for me and my family.  I came to the United States three years ago looking for better jobs opportunities and better education for me and my children, Oscar and Cielo. As I worked to find my way here, I was lucky to find the Methuen Adult Learning Center and I am grateful to them for giving me the opportunity to study English.  When I first came here I wasn’t able to enroll my children in school, help them with their homework or speak to their teachers.  Every day I had to go to my sister-in-law’s house to ask her for help to read school notices.  Today, I am comfortable to help my children with their homework, to speak with their teachers and I can understand all of the school notices.  The Methuen adult Learning Center has given me not only, English skills, but also, confidence to continue working for the better life that I am dreaming of.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.  My name is Sandra Linares and I am from Guatemala.  I am an ESOL Level 1 student.  First, I want to say thanks to the Methuen Adult Learning Center for the opportunity they gave me to learn English.  It has been a great experience for me because in my country, I never had the chance to go to an English school.  I want to say thanks to the school staff, especially to my teacher Marilyn for teaching me everything that I know.  Now in my workplace, I feel more confident to speak with my co-workers because I know they understand me. 

Enjoy the evening and congratulations to the other students.
Thank you very much, and God bless you all.

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Good Evening, Thank You all for coming to share with us the 2006
Graduation of the Methuen Adult Learning Center.

I am honored to be able to speak to you tonight on behalf of my fellow Classmates.

I would like to take a minute to introduce myself to you. My name is Doreen. I am 34 yrs old. I have 3 great children who are here with me tonight, as well as my husband Rich.

It has been a long journey for me to the place I stand tonight, a G.E.D. Graduate. I have many reasons for not being able to finish my education. My family moved a lot. It was very hard for me to start a new school every year. When I got into high school, I decided I did not want to return to school. School was an unhappy place for me because I had no friends and my self esteem was very low. I started working and felt more comfortable there, so I quit school. I always said that once I am stable, I would return to school. Well, as we all know, things don’t always go as planned.

Time had passed and I was now single mom of 2 little girls. I had to focus on taking care of my girls and working. Things were hard. My oldest daughter was born with congenital glaucoma. I found myself in and out of the hospital with her for the first 2 years of her life. I had no time for school.

As my kids got older, they started school. Once again, my oldest daughter was diagnosed with another blow, Asbergers Autism. My time was stretched sooo thin. I wanted to be a strong role model for them and I knew I HAD to go back to school. However, during this time, my dad became sick. We found out he had cancer. I was now trying to take care of him and my girls and work. Life was not easy, too say the least.

Well, there was light at the end of my tunnel! I met my husband. Things seemed to be looking up, but a short time passed and I lost my Dad to cancer. Things just didn’t seem to be able to stay positive. Before I knew it, I was married and had a little boy, Jacob. Life was busy, and once again, I couldn’t find time for school.

As my children got older, I tried to explain the importance of school. I just never really felt right telling them that because I had not finished myself. You’ve heard that old saying, “Do what I say not what I do”. I knew I had to finish school. I wanted to be a strong role model and I felt I couldn’t do that until I finished school.

Unfortunately, life had other plans for me. My family was about to endure the hardest thing we would ever know. We found out my youngest daughter was the victim of abuse from my babysitter’s husband. I didn’t honestly know if we would all be able to pull through this. It was and still is devastating. We waited 2 long years before we could get our justice. We all felt like we lost some of our self during that time. We finally got our justice. So I promised myself after we started healing, I would go back to school, get my G.E.D. and move on to collage. I want to be able to help other families in crisis. So, on a personal note, this year has been a challenge for my family to say the least.

As I stand here along with my fellow classmates, I can say this is a day that is so IMPORTANT to me. I am sure this day holds importance to them also. It is a positive step and a healing step for my family. We have reached a goal that at some point in all our lives seemed unattainable.

I would like to thank the superintendent of schools, Dr. Littlefield, the Director of The Methuen Adult Learning Center, Shirley Callan, Mayor Manzi, Ruth and all the teachers at the Adult Learning Center. In the short time I have known Ruth, I have seen how she loves her job and enjoys being able to help us reach our goals.

Thank You! Without this stepping stone, we would all still feel this goal was not reachable. We are grateful for all of you who make this program possible. We are all strong people. We can persevere. I am proof of that and so are you.

The Methuen Adult Learning Center has just opened endless opportunities for all of us. Ruth helped me get in contact with the right people and I am now going to attend Middlesex Community College in September. So hang on tight, we are in for a great ride.

On behalf of myself and my fellow classmates, you have helped make a dream come true for so many of us. As we go on to reach our many other educational goals, this program will ALWAYS be the basis of all our achievements to come. We cannot thank you enough.

So Congratulations, Good Luck, and like our teacher Ruth always quotes from Les Brown, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars”
Tonight we have landed upon the stars!

Thank You so much. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!

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Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.  My name is Jeannette Tejada, and I am from the Dominican Republic.  It is a privilege for me that my classmates gave me the opportunity to be the speaker to represent the third level ESOL class.  We are all here tonight to celebrate a successful step of learning, and to thank all the wonderful people who make our program possible.

Every immigrant who comes here has a story to tell.  We come to the United States from different circumstances, but all searching for the same objective, to find better opportunities.  In my personal case, I had the opportunity to go to one of the best universities in my country and to become a lawyer with the highest scores in my class.  I worked very hard in my country for five years in my profession.  Everything seemed perfect, and I was happy, but unfortunately after a while things began to go badly and I felt as if everything was escaping from my hands.  I was very frustrated.  It’s a joke but in my country there are a lot of campaigns promoting education, but then we don’t have the opportunity to grow in our profession.  Like me, there are thousands and thousands of professionals who have lost hope and faith in our system.  Those who spend time and effort preparing for the future are not really appreciated. 

When I decided to come to the United States, I was broke.  I knew it would be hard, but I felt I didn’t have any choice.  When I came here I only had $20 in my pocket, and as you know, with this amount of money, it wasn’t enough for anything.  So the next day I began to look for a job in the newspaper.  I found something and decided to go.  Well, I never found the place, and I got very tired.  Then my aunt looked around for me and saw a restaurant.  She went inside and asked the manager, “Do you need someone to work?”  He said, “Yes, for you?”  “No, for my niece” she answered.  “Where is your niece?  Tell her to come in”, he said.  When I went inside the restaurant I was nervous because everybody spoke fluent English and I didn’t.  The manager told me I could work as a busboy.  “As a busboy”, I thought.  My aunt said, “Yes”, and I asked her, “What’s a busboy?”  She said, “Don’t worry, I’ll explain it to you at home”.  The manager told me to start the next day.

Let me tell you, the restaurant was a very popular Greek restaurant in Queens, New York, with a hundred tables, and at that time there were only two busboys, a Mexican boy and me.  I worked 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, and I did the same work as the boy did.  This meant clearing tables, carrying heavy boxes, keeping the freezers full of ice that I had to carry, putting all the chairs on top of the tables and taking them down again, and preparing everything for the waiters.  When I finished for the night, I cried like a baby on the train ride home.  My parents didn’t know anything about it, and I thought I had studied so hard for nothing.  Look at me, I thought, I’m cleaning tables and carrying boxes like a man!  I believe it was hard, but I needed the money and my English wasn’t fluent enough to do anything else.  One day, one of my co-workers told me, “You know what?  The owner of the restaurant is very happy with your work.  He has never seen a young woman work like you.  He has a big construction company and he told me that he would like you to be the secretary, but the problem is your English; you don’t speak fluent English.”

These words motivated me to struggle more.  I got another job in Manhattan.  It was far from my home, but it was a better job than the first one.  Then I met a wonderful man, my husband Francis.  He encouraged me to study English in New York.  I was only in school for two months, and then we decided to come to Massachusetts.  At the beginning I felt lost, because I didn’t know anybody here.  I wanted to continue to study English, but I didn’t know where to go.  One day I was searching on the internet and found out about the tutoring program here at the Nevins Library.  I filled out the application and went to take the test.  The test was given at the Methuen Adult Learning Center.  When I finished taking the test, Susan asked me if I would like to study at the school, too.  Willingly, I said “yes”.   I forgot the auxiliary verb and then I said, “Yes, I do”.  For me, this day was one of the most exciting days of my life.  I was so happy.  I called my friends in New York to tell them, “Guess what?  I’m going to school to study English.”  I called my husband and even my parents in the Dominican Republic.  I couldn’t believe my good fortune.  I remember that I could only say, “Thank you God for the opportunity to continue improving my English”, because I knew that without English it would be impossible for me to get better opportunities. 

I’m very happy to be living in the United States because this country appreciates the struggle of the people who want to improve their lives.  In this country I had the opportunity to meet my best friend, my husband.  When I was living in my native country, I was told that I would never be able to have a baby, and as you can see, that’s not the case!  I am now 5 months pregnant, so God is blessing me.  Besides that, I have new friends in my classmates.

My experience in the last five months of wonderful learning has been amazing.  I have had the opportunity to have the best teacher, and I say the best teacher because you can see the results in only five months.  Good programs have good teachers, and good teachers motivate the students to learn more every day.  When you love your occupation, teaching is easier, and even though this is my opinion, I’m sure my classmates share my opinion about our teacher, Susan. 

I’m so proud of my school because they want me to come back again to continue to study.  They believe in the importance of education, especially learning English and even more important, believing in yourself. 
Finally, I want to stress that this magnificent program couldn’t be possible without the support of our state government, who gives us the funding to run the program, as well as our local government and our school department who support us year after year.  Thanks to all the wonderful staff of the Methuen Adult Learning Center and to the wonderful people who had the idea to start this amazing program. 

God willing, I hope someday to have the opportunity to go to college here and continue to improve my English!

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