Quinsigamond Community College awarded degrees and certificates to more than 1,500 students Thursday during the college’s 61st commencement ceremony, marking its largest graduating class since 2020.
The ceremony focused heavily on perseverance, second chances and the varied paths students took to reach graduation—themes echoed by keynote speaker Matilde Castiel, a physician and former commissioner of Health and Human Services for the city.
In remarks shared by the college, Castiel reflected on arriving in the United States from Cuba at age 7 through Operation Peter Pan, a program that relocated thousands of Cuban children to America in the early 1960s. She and her brother lived in foster homes before reuniting with their parents and eventually building new lives in the United States.
“If that 7-year-old girl…at the Havana airport, holding a small suitcase and knowing only three English sentences, could one day stand here speaking to all of you,” Castiel said in the college’s announcement. “Then I promise you this: there is no limit to where your journey can take you.”
Castiel also spoke about the challenges she faced pursuing a career in medicine, noting that Latina women remain underrepresented among physicians nationwide.
“Graduates of Quinsigamond Community College, you already possess something powerful,” Castiel said. “You know how to keep going when the odds are stacked against you. This degree is not just a credential; it is proof that you belong in every room that you walk into.”
Student Government Association President Ryan Heath, who plans to transfer to Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the fall, spoke about the pressure he faced after high school and the decision to attend community college despite outside expectations.
“What I love about our community college is that all of us were able to reach the same mountain top, yet we’ve all had our own complex and challenging paths of climbing here,” Heath said in the college’s announcement. “Some of us are balancing multiple jobs or raising a family. Some of us are trying to balancing a social life while stressing about that 11:59 due date. Yet despite all of the roadblocks that were ahead of us and all of the doubt, we still made it.”
QCC President Luis Pedraja also praised graduates for their persistence and thanked faculty and staff members for supporting students throughout their academic journeys.
“Graduations are the culmination of years of hard work, overcoming obstacles, and pushing onward,” Pedraja said in the announcement. “Graduation does not signal the end of a chapter, but the start of a new one. It is a commencement, a beginning, a launchpad for future possibilities. It is the beginning of a career, of further studies, of a profession, of a new life.”
