Mari Tere Rojas: Miami-Dade’s public schools graduating Class of 2024: A new journey is just beginning | Opinion

Graduation is the conclusion of a voyage that began some 12 years ago. Throughout that time, our students have worked and studied, practiced, and played and grown both mentally and physically.

Now, they are ready to begin their lives as members and productive citizens of the adult community.

To our graduates, you stand at the entrance of a journey through a world with all that it offers and demands. As you say goodbye to the past, you now say hello and embrace the future. Take full charge of tomorrow, and using what you have learned in the past, build it into a bright and shining future.

For some of you, this new chapter in your life will mean a job and the responsibilities of family living. For others, this will mean college and further years of study, research and preparation, or joining the military to service your beloved country.

Wherever the future takes you, it is our genuine and sincere hope that you will look back on your years attending Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDPS) as having prepared you to meet and deal with the challenges that life will encounter.

To the parents and families of the 2024 graduating class, throughout the years, you have been concerned with the total growth of your children. You have made a great effort to develop individuality and objectivity of thought and action in them.

By allowing your sons and daughters to make intelligent and reasonable choices within the limits you have set, you have developed in them a sense of independence and freedom. Thank you for guiding them, for loving them and for supporting their learning experiences.

To our teachers, thank you for your dedication and commitment to the teaching profession. You have gone to heroic lengths to be innovative and exciting.

You have also come to understand that there is extraordinary hope for the future; that along with fear and despair, there is also courage, bravery, and hope. You have seen courage manifested time and again in your students and you have seen the hope of the future in their faces. You believe in the future because you believe in your students. They have filled you with joy and hope and persuaded you that tomorrow will be the best that humanity can make of it.

To our school-site administrators, thank you for your guidance, your leadership, your commitment to excellence. Thank you for the many challenges you face every single day and for your continuous dedication and support to the students you so humbly serve.

The School Board of Miami-Dade has always had a deep and abiding concern for the education of all students. With the complexities and pressures of today’s society, the work of the board requires a diversity of qualities not the least of which are understanding, compassion, dedication, and commitment.

The board is faithful in inspiring excellence and achieving progress and the 2024 graduating class has enjoyed the actions of policies implemented to ensure academic success and a brighter future for our graduates.

In conclusion, to our 2024 graduating class, as you start this new journey, the knowledge and experiences you have gained during the past 12 years have become a part of you forever and will be with you always. Our future depends on your ability to face innovation and complexity and work together to create a better world for yourselves and for the next generation. You can do it!

Congratulations! You have now joined the honor of being a Miami-Dade County Public Schools graduate.

Thank you to our Superintendent of Schools for his stellar leadership and his staff for their hard work and endless dedication to all of our students.

Mari Tere Rojas is chair of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Board. She represents District 6.