把善良放在第一位

蒂娜·L . 杜伦，对外关系

加芙Fragozo, 皮马2023年毕业典礼演讲嘉宾, wants her classmates to understand that kindness and determination are vital to personal and societal success. “Be aware of what others are going through and what you are going through,” she says. “Let kindness overtake everything that you do.”

The 20-year-old says the people she met during her time at Pima inspired her not just to succeed as a student, but to grow as a person and improve the lives of others. Encouraging and supportive instructors and coworkers as well as curious, mindful classmates and students she tutored helped her find her academic path in science and navigate life’s challenges. 

2020年，她的父亲被美国拘留.S. immigration officials when he dropped her off at Presidio School. 她的母亲躲了起来. 加芙 and her older brother and sister were on their own.

加芙 worked a full-time job and finished school, including dual enrollment and Pima County JTED aviation and technology classes at Pima. All while advocating for her father who was later released on a bond while his case proceeded.

She graduated from Presidio in 2021 and earned a full-ride scholarship to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. She was deciding between a career in law or psychology, 但在她开始学习之前, 加芙, 谁有哮喘?, 生病, 发现她的公寓长了黑霉. Within a week of arriving in Flagstaff, she returned home.

当她感觉好些的时候, she enrolled in several Pima late-start eight-week classes, but it was too late for her to get financial aid. So, she was a manager at two fast food restaurants while she continued to work on her father’s deportation case.

然后, in April 2022 her paternal grandfather was hospitalized, ultimately diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died within a month. Her father was working 12 hours a day to support the family, and 加芙 ended up as her grandpa’s primary caregiver. She successfully pleaded a case to immigration officials to grant her grandfather's daughter a temporary visa to enter from Mexico to be with him during his passing.

“Honestly, it was burning me out,” she says, adding that she took off a month from school and work. “It made it harder to stay in school, but I powered through.” Mathematics faculty 詹姆斯·谢尔登 met with her on Zoom outside of class to help her deal with her stress.“He said, ‘you have to let yourself breathe and heal,” she says.

她的平均绩点降到了3分.9. She felt like a failure, redoubled her efforts and got back up to a 3.95. “然后, I had a moment of realization that I am not being judged by my GPA,” she says. “我的GPA并不能说明我是谁.”

“我所有的教授都对我很有帮助. They really allowed me to succeed and not give up." ~ 加芙Fragozo

她说亚瑟·里德, 她的文学262美国诗人导师, 激励她从事研究工作. “He said if you find a major you love, do it,” she says.

So, she is graduating with an Associate of Science degree and an Arizona General Education Curriculum certification, and has decided to major in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science at University of Arizona, 她今年秋天要去哪里上学. She’s already writing her proposal to research cerebral spinal fluid’s influence on the brain.

“我所有的教授都对我很有帮助. They really allowed me to succeed and not give up,她说，并给他们起了名字——莎拉·詹森, 詹姆斯·谢尔登, 迈克尔堆栈, 大卫•奥布莱恩, 丙烯酸- Bandaranayake, 波莉安娜·维克伦特和艾丽·史黛丝. 

当她在2022年秋季开始上课时, she received financial aid and got a job as a tutor at Pima’s Downtown Campus Learning Center. 每周60到70小时的工作时间一去不复返了. “我的同事都很棒，”她说. “这就像一个家庭.”

She says she draws inspiration and motivation from the students she tutors in English and Spanish. Many of them are much older than her and mentor her. “They are grateful to learn my language,” she says. “In my life, I’ve had people make fun of me and discriminate against me because I speak Spanish. 我在很小的时候就经历过种族歧视. It warms me up to see people wanting to learn my language.”

After a second case of COVID-19 hit her hard this semester, she says she is comfortable with whatever her final GPA is – probably 3.8.

She says she gets her determination and perspective from her parents and her late grandfather, 她称他为最好的朋友. “爷爷是个农民. 他来到了美国.S. 在20世纪50年代，他是一名美国律师.S. 居民，”她说. “He told me stories about all he’d been through.” 加芙’s parents moved to Tucson more than 20 years ago and applied for residency, 而停滞不前. 她是美国人。.S. 居民.

“My parents came here to get away from the gangs and corruption,” she says. “我爸爸是一名园林设计师. 他一直在工作. He says as long as his family is taken care of he doesn’t mind that.”

Her father’s case is working through the legal system, but 加芙 says he has accepted that he may have to return to his hometown in Mexico’s Sinaloa state.

“He says as long as I graduate college, he’s OK,” 加芙 says.