Texas mayor encourages grads

Heralded by some as a future president of the United States, San Antonio Mayor Juli?n Castro of Texas delivered an inspiring commencement address to graduates of Santa Fe Community College on Wednesday.

The 38-year-old Castro, who gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention last September, told the nearly 400 graduates who attended the ceremony that brain power is the new currency of success in the 21st century.

Castro finished his 20-minute speech by saying that as they walk across the stage to pick up their diplomas and certificates, the students had achieved a great victory.

?It?s a great victory for your family, for this state and for the United States as we create with your brain power, your dreams, and your work, another American century,? he said.

Castro had been invited as keynote speaker by SFCC President Ana ?Cha? Guzm?n, who came to Santa Fe last summer from Palo Alto College in San Antonio. Her husband, Gilberto Oca?as, has done some consulting work for Castro and his twin brother, Joaquin, a Texas congressman.

San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, eyed as a rising star in Democratic Party circles, was the keynote speaker at the graduation ceremony Wednesday at Santa Fe Community College. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)

?He?s a friend of ours, both Juli?n and Joaquin are,? Guzm?n said during an interview earlier this week.

Guzm?n said she got to know the Castros as they were first getting into politics in San Antonio about eight years ago. Because they traveled in the same political circles, she served as a mentor to them.

?Because I?m a Democrat, I was part of that as kind of an older statesmen,? she said.

Part of the appeal of having Castro speak at commencement, she said, was that Castro grew up in the barrio, but both he and his brother emerged to graduate from Stanford University and Harvard Law School.

?He knows that excellence is a distributed variable that exists in poor kids as much as rich ones. It?s just that poor ones don?t have the same access,? she said.

Castro talked about gaining access and making the most of opportunities during his speech.

?We grew up seeing both the promise of what could be in my mother, and also what could have been with my grandmother. She had spent her life working as a maid and a cook and babysitter after dropping out in the fourth grade,? he said of his grandmother.

His mother had a better life and wanted to make sure her sons had an even better one. He recalled his mother pulling her sons out of a middle school and taking them to another one after hearing that a school administrator had told sixth-graders that statistically about half of them wouldn?t graduate from high school.

?Because she said that she would never entrust her children, her boys, to folks who didn?t believe that they could get past eighth grade,? he said.

Castro encouraged the graduates to make their families proud by taking advantage of opportunities.

?Seize the opportunities that you have to meet your goals and change the world ? to do things that will make the people that sacrificed for you in life so proud,? he said. ?You have the power to continue to reach for your dreams and to achieve them, and to do right by all those who sacrificed for you.?

Castro said that the commencement ceremony represented an end, but also a beginning.

He said he found in his own life that the next stage was always a little harder than the last. But, ?If you keep on doing exactly what you?ve been doing, exactly what led you to this moment ? setting a goal and then working hard for it, getting past the obstacles, working with others to accomplish those goals ? there?s every single reason that you should believe that you being here today is an affirmation that all of the places life will take you next ? to the working world, to a university, to grad school ? that you will meet those challenges, too.?

He also advised the graduates to surround themselves with people who believe in them.

?Find in your life the people who are like guardian angels, the people who create in you a sense of possibility about what you can do, what you can achieve, what you can be ? folks who have an appreciation for who you are as a person and your God-given potential,? he said.

As mayor, Castro said he often has opportunities to visit with children in the public schools, and he always comes away impressed by their passion and enthusiasm.

?The truth is there is a lot that all of us as we get older can learn from them,? he said. ?That this world of ours, especially in the 21st century, belongs to the dreamers and the doers ? the folks who see possibilities before obstacles, who see the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow before thinking about how high they have to climb to get up to that rainbow, the folks who don?t just dream but are willing to do the hard work that it takes to reach those dreams. Y?all are them. You are those dreamers and those doers, and that?s truly what we celebrate today.?

Castro spoke before an overflow crowd at the school?s William C. Witter Fitness Education Center. So many people attended that many were routed to a different location on campus where they could watch a broadcast of the ceremony.

School officials say it was a record turnout, with 374 students walking the stage, compared with 189 last year.

?I believe students should be encouraged to walk, because it?s an event in their lives,? Guzm?n said. ?It begs the question of what is next.?

In all, 721 students will receive a total of 803 degrees and certificates from SFCC this spring. Among them are 380 certificates, 219 associate degrees in applied science and 174 associate degrees in the arts.

Source: http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2013/05/23/north/texas-mayor-encourages-grads.html

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