Editorial:
This month, graduates are happily walking down the aisles, accepting their diplomas and looking forward to their futures. It is an important and happy day for the students and a proud day for the parents.
Graduates come in all sizes and ages, from pre-school and kindergarten students, middle and high school students, all the way up the ladder to college graduates.
As parents, each graduation is celebrated with pride.
Yet it is the high school graduate, which elicits the most excitement, relief (they finally made it), and is an expression of the future.
For the parents it is the culmination of twelve years of work, encouragement, stress, and of worry. It is a constant battle with the child who would much rather play than do homework and the parent who keeps trying to instill in the child that today’s homework leads to the future and it needs to be completed (hopefully not the night before it is due). As parents, the lesson has been learned that education is the path to a successful future. But sometimes trying to help their students understand life lesson is like hitting one’s head against the wall. For the young students, the most important thing sometimes seems to be about anything that doesn’t have to do with school.
On graduation day, when the student’s name is called out, we see all those years of hard work finally come to fruition. The students receive the congratulations and the parents in the stands congratulate each other with equal excitement.
From here on out, these young students will now start the process of becoming adults. Some will start working, others will join the military, most will go on to a junior college or four year institution. As parents we become less of the hands-on manager and more of the moral and financial support base.
Education is a personal process that families go through, the parents focus is on their child only. But education also takes community involvement and participation, from buying school candies so the sixth grader can make the annual camping trip, to being involved in the election process determining a bond passing, or the direction of education such as the No Child Left Behind legislation. And, in the case of the South Bay school districts, parents have to be involved and vigilant in regards to school scandals and with the election of trustworthy board members.
On a more personal note, at La Prensa San Diego we do our best to help those students who come to us to talk about journalism, those who seek intern opportunities, and those students who are just looking to have a story published, or a poem reach a larger audience.
As a local newspaper this is one of our roles, to provide these opportunities for the students of our communities. We are proud this year, in a small way, to have helped one such student, Giovanna Robledo, who we highlighted this week on the front page. She received a $100,000 dollar scholarship from Ronald McDonalds. Ms Robledo came to La Prensa wanting the opportunity to write for a local newspaper and provide a young person’s perspective on the Presidential election year process. We said yes and she wrote three stories for us. Ms Robledo possessed the initiative and the drive to take on this task. She did all the work, all we did was to provide the opportunity and space to fulfill her goal.
It takes a community to provide the base for success and we are proud to be a part of this community and we look forward to continue or role in this process.