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By Felicia Persaud |
July
2003: Martin Luther King, Jr., High School made the mainstream
news last year when a shooting fracas broke out at the Manhattan
institution. This year, as graduation rolls around, there are
no cameras or mainstream news reporters hanging around outside
the school to record the approximately 140 young people that
are leaving King as graduates. Chief among them is 17-year-old Guyanese immigrant Alexander Sahadeo, this year's valedictorian. Alexander has over come numerous obstacles to get to this point in his young life.
He's the product of a single parent immigrant mother, who has sacrificed and struggled, working long hours, to ensure her son got the education he deserved. And he is proof that despite the obstacles immigrant students face when migrating to a new land, they still manage to excel.
Alex, as he is commonly called, will go on to study pre-med at Massachusetts' Brandeis University, thanks in large part to a $100,000 four-year scholarship, from the Posse Foundation of New York.
The Jackson Heights resident is also the recent winner of a $4,000 scholarship from the Governor's Committee on Scholastic Achievement. And he has copped numerous certificates of distinction from his high school.
In a city, where budget cuts, particularly of education, has become the order of the day, Alexander's achievements are particularly special, since it comes with the help of dedicated teachers like Ms. Diane Marquez and Ms. Manhiem among others.
It is teachers like these who thankfully still are a part of the public education system and have not fled or thrown in the towel because of bureaucracy at the Board of Education.
So on graduation day, when Alexander gives his valedictorian speech, his moment of glory will be one not only for his mother, family, teachers and friends, but for all immigrant children who dare to dream. For with hard work, dedication and commitment, all dreams are possible, luck aside.