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uh... our final speaker for today's uh... is a fantastic professor here at
Cerritos College and a great supporter of the transfer center and transfer
students
doctor Crystal Lo Vetere
has been teaching geography at Cerritos College for the last nine years and is
currently the earth science department chair
she is a first-generation college student and a product of the community
college
after attending Fullerton college we'll forgive her
hahaha
Crystal earned her bachelor's degree and master's degree from Cal State Fullerton
go Titans!
and recently completed her doctorate degree education at usc
woo!
Crystal was nominated by some of the student in attendance today and provided
with common such as
doctor Lo Vetere played a very significant role in helping me complete
my education and transferring to the four year university
without her care and guidance i would have been lost in the process of the college
system
she is my mentor and a great roll model since I'm a geography major as well
haha
please help me in welcoming our final speaker of our celebration, Dr. Crystal
Lo Vetere
i'm not nervous until i'm standing up here
okay!
so first of all hello transferring Cerritos College students!
what a true joy to celebrate your accomplishments
and to cheer you on as you leave Cerritos to pursue exciting and fulfilled
futures
first i wanna take a minute to thank the counselors and staff
from the transfer center
not just for putting on what for me
is my favorite celebration of the entire year
but also for these transfer counselors
that put on the workshops to help you guys write your UC
essays any of you participate in those
i'm asking wake up people
uh... what about and uh... that other functions that they put
together helping you guys do your applications
uh... the one-on-one counseling uh... opportunities that they offer
you to make sure you're taking the right classes
i'd just wanna make sure that they are all recognized for helping you guys get
to this place right here
also i don't know if you guys know this
but you sitting here right now , you represent the reason why most Cerritos
college faculty staff and administrators come to work every single day
people like uh... Tim Juantilla from the... honors program that helps you
guys with honors classes
uh... people like carlos mera that has a line out the door for his office hours
to help get you guys through your physics classes
or uh... angie conley the from the math department that help
that that that that also besides being a fantastic professor
she runs a math club that is solely formed to help create a community to
help you guys get through your math classes
so i don't know if you guys realized this
but you really represent
why don't we do our jobs our goal is to literally help you get to this
place right here
to transfer
to be able to sit out there with a plan
and to help you all change your lives through
did did you guys know this like really like do you know that that is why
most of us get up everyday is to see
you all out here right now
so i hope you feel that every day when you're on when you use to be on campus
uh... hold on hold on actually i forgot my prop hold on
I need my prop!
okay take a whiff
a big inhale people hold on take a deep inhale
let me help you out a little bit
and again take a deep inhale
do you guys smell that?
You smell it?
that is the scent of your life
changing
(laughs)
(laughs)
and more so and i think about this and more so
this is the scent of you literally changing your family tree
not just for your your lives
but your children and for the their
children
when we go to school when we educate ourselves when we earn degrees we shift
our family tree
i bet that some of you are already feeling different from where you come from
perhaps you don't quite fit in
maybe your beliefs in world views are not quite aligned with old friends and
even family
perhaps people don't approve of your chosen major
those are the tangible examples of your life changing
of your future shifting
Now I'm gonna tell you just a little bit about me
and i'm gonna give you a couple of my life mottos and then we'll get back to
uh... celebrating you and sending you out here to enjoy your summer which
you've all
definitely earned
so who am I?
i'm a first-generation college student I'm the product of a community college
i paid my own way through school i worked two and three jobs as a waitress
and i cleaned houses
i paid for every single dime toward my schooling
i came from a stressful and chaotic home things were not always easy in those
early years
and to be honest it wasn't until I completed community college
just as you have done that i began to see
my life shifting
i was twenty five when i transferred when i got to the place where you are
right now
it wasn't this point that i could finally begin to see the light
i could smell the change
and i could feel the joy
are any of you experiencing this now?
that feeling of focus?
truly knowing that you will pull this off?
are you feeling it? yeah?
well i was at a community college there were plenty of times when i wondered if
i was going to make it but once i transferred I knew I would earn
my bachelors there wasn't a doubt in my mind that i was gonna pull it off
and i also knew that education would give me the power to make choices
i often say that people with degrees
are not necessarily the smartest people
simply we are the ones that want those degrees badly
when i transferred i knew that my choices would deeply affect the next
eighty years of my life and i knew i was making the right choices
so after i transferred from Fullerton to cal state Fullerton i earned my bachelors
in my masters in geography
and then i earned my dream job to work with Cerritos college students and
participate in your educational path
i'd just completed
as Brittney said my ninth full-time year at Cerritos
i'm doing the work I love
I also went back to school in two thousand eight I earned my doctorate in
education from usc
almost my entire life i've worked and gone to school full time
I understand how arduous this process is for many of you
today though
mylife is full of joy and peace
my life is very different than it was when
I get all choked up when i think about this stuff my students know me I'm such a softy
uh...
my life is a very different than it was when i was about
to transfer, my life is more lovely than i could have dreamed up for myself
Dr. Lacy will you cover your ears for a second?
I always tell my students my life is bitchen
it's bitchen
i'm bringing it back i'm bringin bitchen back
(laughter)
(applause)
do you know that as you
keep pushing forward
not allowing obstacles to hinder your progress
you are shaping your life to the one that you create for yourself
now i'd like to just share
a couple of my life mottoes that have shaped my life
just some stuff to think about as you guys are making these decisions that are
going to greatly determine the future of your life
First,
i always seek expansion
i often tell my students that i had just as much to learn from them as they
might be able to learn from me
so just some examples of expansion
uh... these are the things that i get excited about
travel, learn a new language
take piano lessons
talk to people who think differently than you do
spend more time in nature
make an effort to learn about the vast diversity of the world
go scuba diving
jump off the stratosphere
don't let fear keep you from doing something that you really want to do
Lizbeth
continue to grow continue to evolve
and continue to learn
now here's my second motto this is this is one i i really live by
i have one life to live
it's gonna be a happy one
one life to live it's going to be a happy one
so this is what i strive for every single day
i don't strive for money or stuff
or prestige or power
i strive for peace
and happiness
in my day-to-day life
i'm not saying moneys bad
i'd just wanted to challenge you all to not get caught up... in these extrinsic
values
or get caught up in this culture that outside these doors that tells you
that your value is based on the car you drive or the clothes you wear
you guys know that's not true right
you know in your gut that's not true said don't get caught up in that
nonsense don't buy into it
so speaking of happiness
research was done to determine the three
characteristics that all people have all happy people have
characteristics that all happy people have, do you want to know what they are?
i'd get out a piece of paper i'm gonna tell you the secret to happiness here people
it is it uh... it do you think it's gonna include money and stuff and things?
fancy cars is that going to be in this list?
hell no
okay here we go
number one it's actually pretty simple
be authentic
be authentic
be you! if you find yourself shape shifting too much in an act in a certain way in
front of certain people you might not really be being you be authentic and
true to your true self
number two
why is nobody writing this down? the secrets of happiness people!
(laughs)
number
two
be vivacious
be vivacious, so what does that mean?
be excited about life
sometimes when i get grumpy with my students and they're sitting there with
that look on their face like uh...
uh... I can't stand being here
the reason why I get grumpy with them is because i feel like they're not getting
this
make the most out of every experience find
joy, live life to the fullest in every experience
so number to be vivacious and number three
be playful
be amused
use your imagination
have fun
life is fun
don't be so serious all the time people loosen up
especially Angie Conley
in closing, in closing
Dr. Lacy, I'm speaking.
she's feeling joyful
in closing we do not choose where we come from
but we choose where we go on and how we engage with the world. for me,
those in the two values i live by
growth
evolving
and happiness
it's such a simple it's so simple people think it's all so difficult that's it
expanding, growth, and happiness
my dear mentor Mr. Bicsler, none of you guys know him
he once confirmed my perspective when he said
as you get closer to the end of your life
you don't think about the cars you drove
or the houses you owned
you think about your life experiences and you think about your relationships
I told you I'm a softy!
i wish for all of you
expansive relationships
and happy experiences
and finally
please keep in touch with all of us at cerritos
we love hearing from you
sometimes i hear from students oh i don't want to bother you i don't wanna
blah blah blah
are you kidding me that is the joy of our day
to get an email or a note from a former student letting us know how you're doing
in your life
so please
keep in touch with all of us we care deeply