cecilia gomez, our alumni speaker. come on up! praech [applause] >> >> good afternoon. thank you for having me here and congratulations to the class of 2024. [applause] my name is cecilia gomez and as of a month ago today exactly i'm a recent graduate olmcallister college with bachelor in education and spanish, and a 2020recipient of the bridge to excellence award. for four years ago i reconsidered whether going out of state was worth it or even a possibility. with the financial implications of the pandemic and the unknown uncertainty of university open again, i thought perhaps the best decision was to stay closer to home instead, even though my dream was to go to liberal art institution. fortunately with the support of mayor london breed and the bridge to excellence award, i didn't have to sacrifice my education and with the support i can now say i graduated summa cum laude from mcallister and will be starting the stanford teacher education program in two weeks. [applause] the bridge to excellence award was proof i was capable of achieving my dreams and i had support s

cecilia gomez, our alumni speaker. come on up! praech [applause] >> >> good afternoon. thank you for having me here and congratulations to the class of 2024. [applause] my name is cecilia gomez and as of a month ago today exactly i'm a recent graduate olmcallister college with bachelor in education and spanish, and a 2020recipient of the bridge to excellence award. for four years ago i reconsidered whether going out of state was worth it or even a possibility. with the financial implications of the pandemic and the unknown uncertainty of university open again, i thought perhaps the best decision was to stay closer to home instead, even though my dream was to go to liberal art institution. fortunately with the support of mayor london breed and the bridge to excellence award, i didn't have to sacrifice my the support i can now say i graduated summa cum laude from mcallister and will be starting the stanford teacher education program in two weeks. [applause] the bridge to excellence award was proof i was capable of achieving my dreams and i had support systems that believe

cecilia gomez, our alumni speaker. come on up! praech [applause] >> >> good afternoon. thank you for having me here and congratulations to the class of 2024. [applause] my name is cecilia gomez and as of a month ago today exactly i'm a recent graduate olmcallister college with bachelor in education and spanish, and a 2020recipient of the bridge to excellence award. for four years ago i reconsidered whether going out of state was worth it or even a possibility. with the financial implications of the pandemic and the unknown uncertainty of university open again, i thought perhaps the best decision was to stay closer to home instead, even though my dream was to go to liberal art institution. fortunately with the support of mayor london breed and the bridge to excellence award, i didn't have to sacrifice my education and with the support i can now say i graduated summa cum laude from mcallister and will be starting the stanford teacher education program in two weeks. [applause] the bridge to excellence award was proof i was capable of achieving my dreams and i had support s

cecilia gomez, our alumni speaker. come on up! praech [applause] >> >> good afternoon.of 2024. [applause] my name is cecilia gomez and as of a month ago today exactly i'm a recent graduate olmcallister college with bachelor in education and spanish, and a 2020recipient of the bridge to excellence award. for four years ago i reconsidered whether going out of state was worth it or even a possibility. with the financial implications of the pandemic and the unknown uncertainty of university open again, i thought perhaps the best decision was to stay closer to home instead, even though my dream was to go to liberal art institution. fortunately with the support of mayor london breed and the bridge to excellence award, i didn't have to sacrifice my education and with the support i can now say i graduated summa cum laude from mcallister and will be starting the stanford teacher education program in two weeks. [applause] the bridge to excellence award was proof i was capable of achieving my dreams and i had support systems that believe in me. even when i didn't always believe in