Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
>> Isauro Saldana: If I hadn't gotten the PathwayOregon promise
I don’t know what I would have done.
>> Kasey Mosher: I remember opening the letter and finding out that
tuition and fees will pretty much always be covered.
>> Zachary Taylor: Both myself and my mother we thought that
it was too good to be true.
>> Myesha Abdulrahman: So me and my mom were sitting there, we were talking,
she was, she cried, she literally cried because
it was a lot of pressure off of her as far as paying for me to go to school
and we were just both really happy because
I could go to school now.
PathwayOregon is my backbone.
I'm a senior, I'm almost done and that’s amazing, it feels amazing.
My mom was a single mom and she struggled.
We couldn't pay the bills we couldn't eat.
So how was it that we were gonna pay thousands of dollars
to go to college?
>> Isauro: The PathwayOregon program is
a program that is essentially designed for students like me
who have parents that never got even a high school education,
a student like me who overcame the achievement gap.
>> Kasey: PathwayOregon to me is everything.
It was my way to go to college.
>> Zachary: PathwayOregon is a scholarship and academic support
program for Oregonians who need the help the most,
but who will also make the most of that help.
>> Carla Bowers: It's an opportunity for a future, for students,
and for our state, and indeed for our nation.
>> Isauro: I would say I'm a little bit more intelligent now
than when I was before,
and I feel like I've kind of discovered myself, and what I'm good at,
and gained a lot more confidence since being here.
>> Kasey: During the last four years I've personally changed a lot I think.
I've become a lot more open minded,
I find that I'm taking on different perspectives,
that I'm looking at things from a different angle, and
I didn’t do that four years ago.
>> Zachary: I feel like I have changed and grown a lot and
I am even more, I guess, ambitious and driven
coming out of college as I was going into it.
>> Myesha: Four years doesn't seem that long but at the same time
I know that I have learned so much about myself
as well as what it is that I wanna do with the rest of my life.
There's so much more to learn, but I'm on the right path.
>> Kasey: After graduation I plan to work for an organization
that helps families in need.
>>Isauro: I would really like to work in multicultural marketing.
>>Myesha: Currently I'm applying to several graduate schools
and then from there becoming a human resource director.
>> Zachary: I plan on having many careers, from fundraising,
to social entrepreneurship, to traveler, lifelong learner,
and eventually a teacher.
>> Myesha: Graduation day, I made it, I did it, let's go!
[orchestra music]
>> Kasey: I made it!
[orchestra music and cheering]
[cheering]
>> Zachary: Thank you donors for a wonderful education.
I'm excited to take on the world.
>> Kasey's father: The pathway program was wonderful because
we did everything we could and pathway helped us do the rest.
>> Kasey's mother: Thanks pathway!
>>Kasey: Thank you PathwayOregon!
>> Myesha's mother: Well she's grown up to be such a beautiful
young woman and we're, again, very grateful for the pathway program.
>> Isauro: To the donors that support PathwayOregon
I just wanted to say a big than you today.
My parents and myself could not be here today without the help
that you guys have all given the program,
given me specifically, and to the many students that will come after me.
[laughs]
>> Kasey: PathwayOregon has fulfilled their promise to me.
>> Zachary: PathwayOregon has fulfilled their promise to me.
>> Myesha: PathwayOregon has definitely fulfilled their promise to me.
>> Isauro: PathwayOregon, promise fulfilled. Go Ducks!