FCC grads grateful for support systems, proud of their achievements
Agopome was one of two student speakers at Frederick Community College's commencement ceremony Thursday evening at Knott Arena in Emmitsburg.
She received an associate degree in social sciences with a concentration in psychology. She plans to continue pursuing a bachelor's degree in counseling psychology at the University of Baltimore with a full scholarship.
Agopome's parents are immigrants from Togo, a country in Africa. As she faced the crowd of hundreds at the arena, she told everyone important lessons she and her sister learned from her parents.
One was that hard work and perseverance are not just tools, but survival skills. Another lesson was that no matter where people come from, the knowledge they carry can't be taken away from them.
Before coming to FCC, Agopome was a student at Montgomery College.
In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Agopome gave birth to her daughter. She realized that to give her daughter everything she wanted, Agopome needed to reflect and look at what she personally wanted, too.
She realized she was pursuing the wrong major and was not at the best school for her, so with the help of her family and friends, she found FCC.
Agopome said her daughter is the main reason she could complete her associate degree and continues to have purpose in her actions and life.
She thanked her own family and support systems during her speech, tearing up at the mention of her daughter. She told the arena to raise their imaginary glasses, cellphones or whatever else they preferred to cheer the class of 2025.
"The world is already yours, you're capable of so much more than you know, and the knowledge you've gained here will never be taken away," Agopome said.
FCC's class of 2025 has 915 graduating students, and about a quarter of the class consists of first-generation college graduates.
The vast majority of the class — 90% — received associate degrees, while the rest of the graduates received certificates of accomplishment.
As the graduates processed into the arena wearing their green robes, audience members cheered loudly and waved excitedly down at the graduates they came to support.
Giulietta Jafari was the other student speaker for the ceremony, alongside Agopome. She also made it a point to thank her parents for the sacrifices they made, so Jafari could pursue her education.
Jafari received associate degrees in English and paralegal studies. She will attend the University of Maryland in the fall to study philosophy and linguistics, according to a Facebook post from FCC announcing the 2025 commencement student speakers.
Jafari said her father is Persian and fled to Iran to escape religious persecution. Her mother was 16 years old and alone, and had little money to support herself.
While her parents' biggest concerns were survival, Jafari said, her biggest concerns were unplugging the family's Wii gaming console fast enough before her sister could beat her in the video game Mario Kart.
Jafari said her dad would tell her to never give up and never surrender whenever she faced an obstacle. She keeps that sentiment in mind to this day.
"I'll always be grateful for [my parents], for the opportunity and sacrifices that they made, so that I could graduate on this day with all of you today, so that I could attend university without denying who I am, so that I could grow into the best version of myself and seize every opportunity that comes my way," she said.
FCC President Annesa Payne Cheek spoke about the diverse range of backgrounds in the graduating class.
She said the class ages ranged from 18 to 68. Some people might have gone to FCC right after graduating high school, while others might have returned to school after years away.
Cheek told the class to also remember the people who believed in them when the students didn't believe in themselves.
She gave the graduates some words she said she would've needed to hear when she was graduating from college herself: "I belong," "I earned this" and "I'm ready."
Jacques Mbengang said he feels accomplished now that he's graduated.
He received an associate degree in STEM technology with a concentration in cybersecurity, as well as certificates of accomplishment in computer studies and information security and assurance.
Mbengang began attending FCC right after he graduated from high school. He got his first job in information technology at Meritus Medical Center last month and will continue working there after graduation.
He said his professors were hands-on and "really took care" of him in and out of the classroom. His father died while he attended FCC, and the college's staff helped him get through that hard period to get his degree.
"In my culture, education is really important, and I believe that knowledge is very important," he said. "Being able to acquire it and finish it to the end, even when I could've gave up multiple times, the fact that I was able to keep moving was something that I really take pride in."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Kids still aren't going to school. Here are six big ideas to get absenteeism under control.
At that rate of decline, it will take another 21 years for the state's students to show up at their pre-pandemic rate. Related : Advertisement Is there any hope to turn things around? The Globe went looking for big ideas that might work. Here's what we found: Pay students for attendance Boston School Committee member Brandon Cardet-Hernandez has called for Think that's extreme? This approach has been The Detroit program, which officials recently decided to extend, caps out at $1,000 per student per year. That may sound exorbitant, but Massachusetts spends more than $21,000 per student per year; spending a fraction to make sure those students actually attend school could be worth it. Advertisement Cardet-Hernandez said it was missed opportunity to not use the state's federal pandemic relief funds on paying for attendance. Doing so would be an 'upfront investment' in the future of the region's students and economy. 'When we have young people who are years behind in literacy and math skills, is there an opportunity for us to think differently about our values and to create a financial incentive to grow those skills?' he asked. Related : Make kids get some sleep Tim Daly, chief executive officer of the education nonprofit EdNavigator, pointed to Sleep is a hard problem for schools to address — it happens when children are at home — but Daly had one idea for how schools could help: disabling school-issued devices. 'Sometimes when kids stay up too late, they're using the devices to 'do homework' but really they're using them to stream,' Daly said. 'Not only would [disabling them] prevent them that, [schools] can message to parents, when that goes off, it's time to go to sleep.' Some school-issued devices have restrictions on non-academic uses, but often those only apply on district internet, and committed children can get around them. Even if the devices are being used for homework, staying up late working on homework is bad for sleep. Parents can also restrict screentime, whether schools step in or not. 'The most important thing we need to do is help kids with their nighttime routines,' Daly said. Some districts have also moved high school start times later to better align them with adolescent sleep cycles. Advertisement Focus on the neediest students Lawrence Public Schools, a high-poverty district that serves large numbers of immigrants, has made major gains from its peak in 2022, when the majority of students were chronically absent. Its overall rate is higher than the state, but rapid progress has continued. As of March of this year, absenteeism was down to 21 percent, a 4.5 point improvement from 2024, and many groups — low income students, English learners, and Black students — have lower absenteeism rates than peers statewide. Ralph Carrero, the superintendent, said the district's Homeless/Newcomer Coalition was the key intervention. The coalition brings together more than a dozen of the city's social service agencies and nonprofits — housing, healthcare, transportation, food, and more. The members meet monthly to individually discuss every homeless or new-to-the-country immigrant student in the district and make sure their needs are being met, in and outside of school. 'It's not a formula, it's not a secret, it's paying attention,' Carrero said. The district has about 500 homeless students each year and many recent immigrants, so focusing on meeting their needs has a big impact on attendance. Get pediatricians involved Mary Beth Miotto, a pediatrician and former president of the state chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, encourages her colleagues to consider school attendance a 'vital sign,' just like blood pressure. Because pediatricians are not part of the school system, Miotto has found she can have positive conversations with parents without unintentionally invoking the specter of truancy. Advertisement Absenteeism is highest among high-needs populations, including low income students, who may not have primary care physicians, so Miotto said everyone in the medical profession, including ER and urgent care doctors, should be asking about school attendance. 'We can pour all the money into schools and teachers, but if kids aren't showing up, it's not helping,' she said. Restructure schools around relationships Hedy Chang, founder and director of the nonprofit Attendance Works, praised Providence's Nathanael Greene Middle School, which cut its absenteeism rate from more than 50 percent in 2021-22 to 30 percent in 2023-24, about equal to its pre-pandemic level. Attendance experts swear by relationship-building, as students have to believe people will miss them when they're gone, but just deciding to build relationships isn't necessarily enough. The school's principal, W. Jackson Reilly, 'reorganized the school so relationship-building was built into how it operated,' Chang said. Students are divided into cohorts, with a specified team of teachers sticking to one of them, Chang said. Each cohort also had classrooms close to each other. Related : This meant that the students were face-to-face with the same group of classmates and teachers, every day, rather than bouncing around to far-flung parts of the school. Districts need to design schools so relationships don't depend on 'happenstance,' Chang said. Robert Balfanz, the director of the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University School of Education, suggested bringing in outside mentors, such as local college students, for a similar reason. 'If you're a school with 200 or 300 chronically absent kids, you're going to have to form some partnerships,' he said. 'Get more adults in the school.' Advertisement Even tutoring, which can be hamstrung by high absenteeism, In some cases, incentivize through consequences Absenteeism has risen in every type of district since the pandemic, and in some places, 'negative nudges' could help, Balfanz said. For example, he said, many high schoolers play hooky regularly but still turn in the assignments posted online by their teachers so their grades aren't negatively affected. Some of those students might attend regularly if their grades were on the line for attendance or if the homework wasn't online. 'The benefits of being in school are more than just the assignments,' Balfanz noted. 'If I'm on a four-day-a-week plan and think I can skate by, a more negative nudge might get me to make that fifth day.' But he warned the approach has risks: if a student is avoiding school due to bullying, for example, punitive options might instead drive them further away. Christopher Huffaker can be reached at
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Charts: Little progress on getting Massachusetts absenteeism under control
Here's what the data show: Absenteeism may have declined further by the end of the year, but the March 1 number was just 0.3 points lower than the prior year. In some years, full-year absenteeism has been slightly higher than the March 1 rate. In 2022, the state began tracking even-more-severe absenteeism: students missing 20 percent of school. Those students miss a day of school each week, on average. Advertisement At the In the most recent school year through March, 5 percent of students were absent that often. The Advertisement In each of the state's 10 largest districts, absenteeism in March 2025 was up at least 3.8 percentage points from 2019. Newton's absenteeism as of March was about the statewide pre-pandemic average, at more than 12 percent, while districts including Boston, Springfield, and Lynn still had more than 30 percent of students missing 10 percent of school. Overall, just 10 percent of the state's traditional and charter districts reported lower absenteeism through March than in 2019, mostly very small districts such as Truro, Maynard, and Florida. And most of those districts, like the state, reported very little progress from March 2024 to March 2025. Just three of the biggest districts — Lawrence, New Bedford, and Newton — brought absenteeism down by more than 3 points from March 2024 to March 2025. Lawrence Superintendent Ralph Carrero attributed his district's progress to a coalition that brings together more than a dozen of the city's social service agencies and nonprofits for monthly meetings about every homeless and new immigrant student. Still, one-quarter of Lawrence students were chronically absent. As well as being geographically widespread, the rise in absenteeism has affected every demographic group. In Massachusetts, white and Asian students have the lowest absenteeism rates, but rates for both groups have risen by half. Low income and Latino students have the highest rates, and their rates have increased by more than one-quarter. There remain large gaps between groups in absenteeism, however. Through March, high needs students — those who are low income, English learners, and/or have disabilities — were absent 26 percent of the time, compared to 19 percent of all students. Advertisement Christopher Huffaker can be reached at
Business Insider
7 hours ago
- Business Insider
I saved over $100,000 while studying at Yale. When I graduated, I helped buy my immigrant parents a house in New York City.
On an evening walk during my freshman year at Yale, I noticed a homeless man slipping in and out of consciousness at the corner of a street. His breathing was shallow, his lips tinged blue, and he didn't respond to a sternum rub I gave him. Trusting my instincts, I reached for the Narcan I always carried in my backpack. Within minutes, the man regained consciousness. When I offered to call emergency services, he shook his head. "I'd just like someone to stay here with me," he said. He told me about his estranged kids and wife, about trying to rebuild what war and circumstance had taken from him. Though his identity as a Black man and Afghanistan veteran with PTSD was worlds apart from mine, there was something painfully familiar in his voice — a weariness I recognized in my own parents, two immigrants who, until recently, had no house to call their own and spent years chasing the elusive promise of the American dream. I recounted that interaction to my mother the next day. During our call, I made her a promise: I would take on jobs throughout college and save whatever I could to help buy her a house in New York. It's been nearly three years since I made that pledge, and shortly after my graduation this past May, we moved into our first house in Staten Island. As a child, the idea of a house felt abstract, almost indulgent When I was growing up, we made do with small Brooklyn apartments, and those spaces held all the joy in the world — toys, cartoons, birthdays lit by grocery store candles. As a teenager, that naivety turned into frustration. I visited friends' houses, gazed up at their chandeliers, and wished to have what they did. In New York, where the affordable housing crisis is at an all-time high, I always hated seeing my parents breaking their backs working odd jobs to pay rent as they age. To help afford the house, I worked alongside my college studies In my first three years of college, including the summers, my total income was a little over $110,000. Since Yale fully covered my tuition, living expenses, and food, in addition to providing an annual stipend, I was able to dedicate a large portion of my income to my savings account, which I jointly held with my mother. I had several streams of income while in college: shelving books and making copies of handouts for English professors, fixing printers, drafting op-eds, making videos for an edtech company, freelance tutoring and writing, and working on public health campaigns for the United Nations Foundation. I spent a summer in D.C., where most of my paycheck went to rent in the Dupont Circle, and another at the Ford Foundation, navigating the world of philanthropy. Some internships paid the bills, others helped me imagine a future career, and one turned into a job. Whenever I felt overwhelmed, I thought of my parents, of how each job, each late night, was moving us closer to our goals. Seeing my parents in their home has made the hard work worth it When we finally bought our dream house, I brushed my fingers against the freshly painted walls. I couldn't help but think that in two centuries, this house would belong to a different set of owners. There would be toddlers I'd never get the chance to meet, growing up tracing the grain of these wooden floors with their bare feet, and teenagers sneaking their boyfriends and girlfriends through the back door. But for now, my family has a permanent home. It is comforting to know that my parents will have an enduring place for them to come home to as the demands of budding adulthood and attending medical school at Stanford University pull my attention away. I didn't want my parents to constantly ask for permission to exist, to find themselves tossed around in a country where immigrants are often made to feel like tumbleweeds. Right now, we are here. Mom is deciding where to frame a family portrait, and Dad is asleep in his room. I'm lacing my shoes, about to go on a run through my new neighborhood. It is a perfect July evening. There are still pops of fireworks overhead, even though the fourth was days ago. I look up, and I tumble into a memory, back to that night in my first year of college when I sat with the man on the street. He told me that bright things like fireworks and fireflies, as beautiful as they are, remind him of Afghanistan. However, he said that if he got the chance to see his sons again, he would not hesitate to work through his fears. He's a constant reminder to myself to meet people where they are, in my career and beyond. My parents may have more security now, but so many others are still waiting — at the payphone, for the other side to pick up, for a room, for a brief reprieve from the grind and grime of survival. We are all trying to come home.
