EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD Guyanese Devona Alonzo on Tuesday attained one of her goals when she graduated at the top of his class at the Aspirations Diploma Plus High School, New York, United States of America.

Alonzo previously attended the Westfield Prep Schools and then later Saint Stanislaus College, where she graduated in 2022 after writing 12 subjects for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations. She then left Guyana in October 2022.

The young adult, previously of Lodge, Georgetown, said that one of her greatest challenges was transitioning from the Caribbean and Guyanese education system to that of the American one.

“It was a bit difficult considering the fact that it’s two completely different educational systems. So I had to figure out a way to navigate that as well as learn how to deal with the students, considering the fact that Caribbean teaching is a bit different than America’s system,” she explained.

Alonzo said that her mind was always set on graduating as valedictorian, so she just went after her goal and studied hard. She noted that the high school she attended was a transfer school, which a lot of emigrant Caribbean students attended.

“I just remained focused, I knew my goal. I knew what I wanted, and my mind has always been set on being valedictorian. So that’s what I went after; just kept focused on that. As a matter of fact, the school that I attended pretty much had a lot of Caribbean students,” she noted.

Alonzo related that she received two scholarships from a church that one of her teachers attends regularly.

“She told her church about me, I did an interview with them, and they gave me two scholarships,” she said.

Alonzo shared that she was overjoyed since all her hard work paid off, and she says that she is very proud of herself.

“I was extremely happy that my hard work paid off, all the sleepless nights and all the early mornings paid off, so I was very, very proud of myself. And I knew that my family would be proud of me as well. They were proud of me,” she said.

Her next step is attending York College, Queens, New York to further advance her studies in Accounts. “I’ll be attending; as of right now, York College accepted me. I should be doing two years there and I’ll do two years at a college that is upstate,” she said.

During her address as Valedictorian, Alonzo thanked God, the principal, support staff and her parents, as well as other family members, for the support they gave her to make the day possible.

She noted that in addition to her being from Guyana, there were quite a lot of challenges that fashioned and formed her to be the person she is today.

“For those who know me, I’ve always been willing to work hard and sacrifice for what I wanted, especially when it came to my grades, however, never would I have thought that I would’ve been here, in America, on this day, graduating and giving this Valedictorian speech,” she said.

Alonzo related a famous quote by Confucius which read, “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall”.

She urged fellow graduates to use the quote as an inspiration that no matter their background or whatever it is that they may have gone through, they can still achieve great things.