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Welcome
Kira Coveney, Site Director, Year Up at Roxbury Community College
Tyra Anderson-Montina, Site Director, Year Up Downtown Boston
Katie Pham, Intern at JPMorgan Chase & Co., Class of July 2020
Ellen McClain, Chief Financial Officer, Year Up
Presentation of Partner Awards
Tyra Anderson-Montina, Site Director, Year Up Downtown Boston
Keynote Address
Brandon Lovell, Year Up Class of July 2010
Presentation of Student Awards
Kira Coveney, Site Director, Year Up at Roxbury Community College
Graduate Speaker
Aaron Dagraca, Intern at Harvard University, Class of July 2020
Presentation of Certificates
Emily Henesey, Director of Program
Charlene Williams, LC Achieve
Marissa Edwards, LC Aspire
Keylin Haye, LC Believe
Jasmine Walthall-Drakes, LC Empower
Christian Ver, LC Strive & LC Engage
Alumni Pledge
Connor Arsenault, Year Up Class of July 2015
Aaron Dagraca, Year Up Class of July 2020
Katie Pham, Year Up Class of July 2020
Closing Graduate Speaker
Katie Pham, Intern at JPMorgan Chase & Co., Class of July 2020
Welcome to the Year Up Greater Boston Commencement Ceremony!
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,
Roxbury Community College
Northeastern University
I PLEDGE that as a member of the Year Up National Alumni Association, I will continue to uphold and promote Year Up’s mission and core values. I will strive for excellence and realize my potential. I will use my time and talents to contribute to the success of Year Up, its students, and its alumni. I will take action in the movement to close the Opportunity Divide. I take this oath freely, as a promise to lift while I climb, and to be a lifelong ambassador of Year Up.
Copyright © 2020 Year Up, Inc.