Congratulations!

Graduates, today we celebrate TWENTY successful years of closing the Opportunity Divide for thousands of young adults in Greater Boston. We are ecstatic to be here today witnessing you, talented and motivated young adults, ready to graduate and launch plans to achieve your dreams. You’re joining a valuable network of Year Up alumni in Greater Boston and across the country. You have been exceptional ambassadors for the Year Up community during these unprecedented times and we could not be prouder.

We at Year Up Greater Boston are honored to have been a part of your journey. Your drive, energy, and commitment to reaching your full potential has certainly inspired each one of us here tonight. All 183 of you started this experience full of hope and expectations, eager to embark on a yearlong journey towards professional careers. You have faced adversity and persevered through the changing virtual environments and impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic, shelter-in-place orders, civil unrest, and economic turmoil. Today is a symbol of your dedication that should be celebrated immensely! 

You have learned and acquired so many skills from this experience and now is the time to apply what you have learned about hard work, resilience, adaptability, networking, teamwork, and leverage those skills as you plan to reach your career and educational aspirations. Now is the time to use those skills to give back and strengthen your community. Be reflective of this journey and be empowered to share your story with a friend that could use a ‘Year Up’ in their life and volunteer to do the same with future students. Always remember your story matters, your voice matters, and you matter.  As we’re currently sitting here in the storm of an epidemic, upcoming elections and a Black Lives Matter movement, we can’t iterate the importance and value of you activating your voice during this important time in history.  For everyone reading this letter today, VOTE!

LC Strive, LC Engage, LC Believe, LC Aspire, and LC Achieve, you have some inevitable obstacles ahead, yet we’re confident you have the grit and skills to charge forward. There are countless corporate partners, funders, community partners, volunteers, staff members, friends, and family who believe in this program—and believe in you. You have an entire network of people cheering you on and will continue to do so as a community.  

On behalf of Year Up Greater Boston, congratulations to our Resilient Class of July 2020!

Yours in service,