GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. — Thirteen Guilford County graduating seniors were honored by the district superintendent Thursday after persevering through pandemic learning.
"This class is comprised of more than 5,300 graduates who only had one year of what we would call a typical high school experience before the pandemic turned everything on its head," said GCS Superintendent Dr. Sharon Contreras. "Now they’ve made it to the finish line and are ready to take the next step toward their extraordinary lives."
Leslee Garcia-Espindola graduated from Middle College at Bennett. She said she lost her great grandmother during the pandemic and is now going to the University of North Carolina-Greensboro to study nursing.
"The only other person to ever graduate with a degree was my great grandmother so I hope to follow her footsteps," Garcia-Espindola said. "I just I want to help people the way that I would’ve wanted my grandmother to be helped when she was sick."
Garcia-Espindola is a passionate advocate for indigenous people. She gave a presentation to the Middle College at Bennett on the culture, history, and struggles of Native Americans.
"As an indigenous person we are often overlooked and our issues are often overlooked as well," said Garcia-Espindola.
She also held a coat drive to help her tribe's reservation in South Dakota.
"The winters are very cold where I’m from and not a lot of people have resources for jackets or anything so I just did that as a part of a way to help my community and I know that my grandmother would’ve wanted me to do it in remembrance of her as well," she said.
Juan Miguel Duran Hernandez, an Eastern High School graduate, immigrated from Columbia at a young age and will be the second person in his family to attend college when he heads to North Carolina State University in the fall to study engineering. He was accepted into 15 schools and said it was because of his mother that he was driven to do well in school.
"My mom instilled in me that school was the most important thing in life just to help with a degree and get further in life," said Duran Hernandez.
Jenny Tran, a graduate of the STEM Early College at North Carolina A&T, said it was also her mother who encouraged her in school.
"She actually immigrated here from Vietnam as an adult immigrant and so she always emphasize(d) to me the importance of education so she wasn’t able to get her high school degree because she was too old so it’s always been like go big or go home for me when it comes to high school," Tran said.
Dr. Contreras, who is leaving the district this month, said while these students are standouts, she is proud of the entire 2022 class.
"I’m feeling sad in many respects. It is difficult to leave my life's work but also very proud when I see the young people here in all that they have accomplished in such a short period of time under very difficult circumstances during a pandemic," said Contreras. "I know that we are good hands and our future is bright and their future is bright and I’m so proud of every single one of them."