MC forever has housed a
welcoming environment,
knowledgeable professors,
informative curriculums, and
an intelligent,
diverse student body.
Very diverse campus
and people
from different cultures
for generations, students
like myself and people
from everywhere.
It kind of took
my first year at MC
for me
to come back out of my shell
and I really, really credit
that to the professors
that I had.
For pushing me
in the classroom
and for
seeing my potential
and kind of reopening
that hope that
you know, there's opportunity
and there's potential for you
to do
whatever you want to do.
And so I really,
you know, the rest of my
because I ended up doing
three years at MC.
So the rest of the two years
after that first year,
I just applied to everything
that I could.
I was involved
in clubs on campus and I,
I think those opportunities
really opened doors for me,
being also
a first generation student
from an immigrant family.
Participation,
taking advantage
of all the opportunities.
Montgomery
College is a unique
place where so much
is available
to students
in the depth of majors
and courses
that are available here.
The comparison of
the financials
it takes to attend
Montgomery college versus
larger universities
and the benefit
of the smaller class sizes
you have here,
especially in the courses
you take
in your first two years.
Learning how to
enjoy learning
will change
anybody into
a student of life.
Doubling back
on, learning how to learn.
All of that
underlying benefit
allows you to make mistakes
if you don't
understand how to learn yet,
maybe you picked a major.
You decide after years,
not the major you want.
Montgomery College
allows you to
at very low
risk to your future,
change your path
and to try
something different
and to learn how to learn
while you're here.
It's an amazing place.
At every step of the way.
I was definitely afraid,
but I would
have conversations
with myself
and my professors where
the worst thing
that can happen
is "no," right?
And that doesn't
close the door
to the million
other opportunities
that exist.
So I tell this to
every student.
I tell this to my brothers
who are,
you know,
starting college now,
that being afraid only
limits your opportunity
to open the door.
There's nothing
that is too big to achieve.
All you've got to learn
is to push those doors.
I think a bit of advice that
I can give to current
students is
to learn
the resources
that are available to you
and utilize them fully.
I recall when I first came
to Montgomery College,
I was fresh from Africa
with zero experience.
Obviously navigating
the system
was quite challenging,
but one thing I had
is the drive.
I knew that
I wanted to pursue
my educational goals
and make my parents
and myself proud.
Montgomery College
has offered
incredible resources
to the students
that can help them succeed.
You know,
we have
the Math Learning Center.
We have
the Digital Learning Center.
If you are not familiar
with technology,
you can go out there
and seek help.
It's okay
not to understand,
but you have to
take the initiative
and reach out
to your professors
and in fact,
other classes
they have like
student assistants
that are hired to help you.
And so learning
to go beyond
what you are
taught in classes
and just seek help
from your professors,
utilize the office hours.
My employees
have been taking the Bio-Trac
in Germantown
so that to further develop
what they know
and for me that that helps
with their development
in their career.
They get to play with this
really expensive machines
really don't know
how it works,
but at least
they have learned so much
about mass pecs
or even HBLC's.
And so I've sent
some of my employees
there to
further their career.
I joined the student Senate.
I got very involved
in the campus
and being able
to create change
and being able
to make the campus
more lively
with the student
activities Board
and setting up events
and stuff,
it makes you feel like
you're more
a part of Montgomery
College in the community.
In addition to all the other,
you know, counseling
clubs, student senate.
There's also
a number of honors
programs
available to students,
especially coming in.
Some of you can join
during them,
like Macklin Business
or Renaissance Scholars.
I started Montgomery College
as a Montgomery Scholar,
which is very challenging
as an engineering student
because it focused
so strongly
on the humanities.
It forced me to do
far more writing
and far more
speaking than
many of my peers.
So when I transferred
to the University
of Maryland College Park,
I was far ahead
and we had the Montgomery
Scholars Program.
You finish
with an independent
research project
and a presentation.
You write a paper,
you can submit it
to conferences.
I was fortunate enough to
to do that
and participate in those.
And then when I got to
my senior project,
many of my peers
were not experience
with that yet.
And I was and I can say
with some bias
that that
definitely opened up the path
for me
to continue on
to get a graduate degree
at the expense
of the University
of Maryland.
When I was
introduced to this honors
community and I had classes
continuously
with the same peers,
I was able to build
those really deep bonds.
And I've maintained
amazing friendships
with those students,
lifelong friendships.
I just had a birthday lunch
with one of those friends
and we always joke
about being godmothers
to each other's children,
eventually down the future.
So it's incredible to me
that I was able
to walk away from MC
with these
lasting skills
and lasting friendships
that I still
am able to utilize
constantly every day.
What Miriam said
as a Montgomery Scholar
and having that opportunity
to take the courses combined
as they do
that other students
did not have that opportunity
to see all the world.
It's not just
take world history
and then take
world literature,
but here's
an event in history.
Here's how art shaped,
here's
how the literature shaped
who's on the philosophy
that people shaped
to start
to be exposed to that
while you're
getting into your major,
even as an engineer
who's isn't going to
take those credits
when they transfer
to University of Maryland.
To allow other students
to experience,
that would be
incredibly beneficial.
For me,
a lot of the opportunities
that I found for
professional development or
academic development
in terms
of applying to conferences
and presenting research,
were through the Renaissance
Scholars Program,
which I absolutely loved.
And I think just that
environment of
having these
interdisciplinary classes,
I think really shaped me
as a person and the career
that I'm now developing
because I'm
doing communications work,
but I studied
international relations
and so I really bring
that interdisciplinary
kind of focus to my work,
and I hope
to eventually continue
on to do grad school.
And again,
just the level of writing
that was
required in these classes
I think shaped me up
amazingly for my time at Hood
and beyond
and even for my career,
because constantly
kind of the feedback
that I get is
you write
very well,
and I don't say that to brag,
but rather
to kind of emphasize that
these skills
that we were able to build up
at MC kind of exceed
expectations
than what people
might assume
from that community
college label
And I think that's
so important
and integral
in the world that we live in
and the way
that we communicate writing
and these interdisciplinary
skills
being really important.
Your grade is not
the most important thing
for you to do
while you're
at Montgomery College.
It's to learn how to learn.
Don't you know
you can't
not strive for a good grade?
It's how we objectively judge
if we're
succeeding in a
course or not.
But the first day
of your job,
your first job,
your grades don't
matter anymore.
So it's far more important
for the students to come here
and to understand
that they are here,
not to learn
how to do
Pythagorean theorem,
but to learn
how to understand
how that was developed.
That the techniques
so that when
they move on to a job,
they can continue to learn
and continue to succeed.
A student
coming from high school
or coming in to
Montgomery College
has for
many years thought,
I need to get good grades
to succeed.
And here
I was fortunately
through the Montgomery
Scholars program
and for many other professors
outside of the program
to make it clear,
I'm not going to teach you
to beat the test.
I'm going to
teach you physics.
I'm going to teach you
history, going to teach you
philosophy.
The writing
center was very
crucial to me.
I just came from Kenya.
We speak English in Kenya.
However,
writing was not
my stronghold.
I just hated it,
you know,
when I came here,
I realized
there's no way
I'm going to escape this.
You know,
I knew I had to find a way.
So having
the writing center
was very crucial.
I've spent so much time
over there,
which really helped me.
Even now,
I ended up joining
the Renaissance Scholar
and took a lot of honors
classes
with the help
of the writing center.
I'm also going to say
the career center.
You know,
sometimes you do
things on your own,
you think it's okay,
but it's really not okay.
With the help of the
career, saying,
I was able to get
my resume together,
which has helped me up
until now.
So, yes,
the writing
center of the Corinthian,
a very crucial to me.
I was about to say
the career center
is where I actually
learn how
to properly interview.
And they go there,
they help you
brush up your resume.
They also,
you know, do a mock interview
if needed.
I went to the science
learning center
a lot for help,
and they help me out a lot.
So I also emphasize,
you know,
scheduling appointments
with a math science
learning center.
They're pretty much
always open.
So you can always
just walk in
and get help
from students and faculty.
Montgomery College
is the place to be and indeed
can prepare you
to be the best
person that you can be.