TAMPA, FLA. (WSVN) - A Tampa-area high schooler honored her immigrant parents in an emotional moment during her valedictorian speech.
When she stepped up to the lectern on May 24, Brenda Alvarez-Lagunas used props to illustrate so much in her young life.
“Care for some strawberries?” she said as she held up a carton filled with strawberries.
Her parents, who came to the U.S. from Mexico, spent hours a day in sun-baked fields.
“I am a daughter of two farm workers who have worked tirelessly from sun up to sun down” she said during the eight-minute speech.
Alvarez-Lagunas said they picked cucumbers, blueberries and strawberries. To her, those fruits and vegetables show determination, commitment and motivation.
“This one represents sweat. This one represents dirt,” she said as she held up strawberries one by one.
The teen, named the valedictorian for the 2019 graduating class at Mulberry High School, said she witnessed her parents’ hard work, and that motivated her to excel.
“Oftentimes, students like me, they are ashamed of their backgrounds, and I wanted to change that,” she said. “They shouldn’t, because their upbringing made them who they are.”
Her efforts have also made her an incoming freshman at Stanford University in the fall.
“Aiming too low and making it is aiming too high and missing,” she said.
“I think that she has a keen awareness of what opportunity looks like, and she’s not going to take her eyes off of that,” said Michael Young, Mulberry’s principal.
Alvarez-Lagunas’ valedictorian speech has gone viral, viewed thousands of times online but the graduate remains humble, shifting the focus to her classmates, who also watched their parents work relentlessly in the fields of Polk County.
“When I was writing the speech, I know the purpose was to get representation to those who feel underrepresented. It was never about me,” she said.
Young said 260 students graduated this year. Many are going to college or entering the military in the fall.
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