GILROY
– Family and friends of Mt. Madonna graduates saw firsthand
Tuesday night how the alternative high school’s small-campus touch
impacted the lives of their once-troubled loved ones.
GILROY – Family and friends of Mt. Madonna graduates saw firsthand Tuesday night how the alternative high school’s small-campus touch impacted the lives of their once-troubled loved ones.
Although there was no official theme to the night, “renewal” could have been. District and school officials congratulated the Class of 2003 for not only meeting the requirements to graduate, but for overcoming the many personal challenges many of the students have faced.
Officials said the 62 diplomas handed out Tuesday represent the largest graduating class in Mt. Madonna’s three-decades-long history. Roughly 180 students are currently enrolled in Gilroy Unified School District’s alternative high school.
“Many of our graduates faced many obstacles to get here tonight, and I’m extremely proud of you,” an emotional Principal John Perales told the Class of 2003. “You’ll go on to do wonderful things in your life, and one day you’ll see your children graduate, too.”
Perales ends his first year as principal at the school. He took over at Mt. Madonna after former principal Bob Bravo was hired as principal at Gilroy High School.
A standing-room-only crowd packed the Gavilan College theater to see roughly 50 graduates receive diplomas. The night’s keynote speaker was Dom Galu, a former teacher and counselor at Mt. Madonna who is retiring this year as GUSD’s director of state and federal programs.
Galu told students to be prepared for change all their lives.
“It’s not mysterious. Change is shaped by the actions and inactions of people,” Galu said. “In 10 years, many of you may be in jobs that have not been created yet today. Lifelong learning is not a luxury, it is a survival skill.”
Mt. Madonna students know a lot about survival skills. The school’s population includes teen moms and dads, disadvantaged youth and students like class president Jessica Garcia who just “needed more involvement” with her school than what Gilroy High School had provided her as a freshman and sophomore.
Garcia, who will go to Gavilan College and plans to transfer to a four-year school to study journalism, was the student speaker Tuesday night.
Quoting the Chinese philosopher Confucius, Garcia told her fellow classmates, “Our greatest glory is not in falling, but in rising when we fall.”
She thanked the Mt. Madonna faculty and staff for their dedication to helping students rise.
“Thanks to all of the teachers and advisors that have made an influence in the lives of graduates and in my life. Mt. Madonna was more than I imagined, more than what I expected and exactly what I needed to succeed.”
“When Jessica first went to Mt. Madonna, I thought it was something negative,” Jessica’s mother Rosa Garcia said. “But I saw the change in her, and now I realize it was a blessing in disguise. I felt like I was the proudest mom there last night.”
Before graduates were handed diplomas, Mt. Madonna teachers commented on each student personally, bringing many to smiles as well as some to tears.
Teacher Rick Charvet put a unique touch on the presentation of his homeroom students. Taking each letter in the student’s first name, he used a word that described how he would remember each of them. His student Cindy Garcia, for instance, will be forever thought of as conscientious, impassioned, novel, delightful, and youthful.
Other faculty shared their recollections of the trials and tribulations of their students before giving them good luck hugs and roses. Teacher Marina Campos commended each of her teen mother students for earning their diplomas, an accomplishment she said their children can be proud of and emulate one day.
Teachers also made bold predictions about the future of their students. Teacher Barbara Roy told the audience to look out for Rita Dominguez, a future poet, and Dallas Houston Hunkin, the next rap song writer.
“Watch out 50 Cent,” Roy quipped Tuesday night.
