Executive Director Anita St.Onge revealed that two PAE graduates will be speaking at the commencement ceremonies for both SMCC and USM this year. The Portland Press Herald reported on both ceremonies:
USM
Student speaker Lucy Shulman, a linguistics major who is going to Japan to teach English later this year, talked about discovering her own worthiness at USM after entering the university at age 23 without a high school diploma and a nonexistent sense of self-esteem.
“We are significant, and we are worthy,” said Shulman. “And in the years I’ve been at USM, the world has finally seen us. We’re not invisible anymore.”
Shulman told her classmates that their college degrees matter “because we earned them. Everything we put into them, all the blood, sweat and tears, and more tears, and a bunch of energy drinks, are what give us our power.”
Shulman received thunderous applause.