Jaileen Baptista Gives Student Speech at 2022 Celebration of Excellence

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Jaileen Baptista `22, a mathematics and education major, was the student speaker for the 2022 Commonwealth Honors College (CHC) Celebration of Excellence.

The event took place at the Mullins Center, on Thursday May 12, 2022 from 6:00-7:30 p.m. The Celebration of Excellence provided each graduating Honors senior with the opportunity to be personally recognized and provided with an official CHC gold stole. Baptista presented her speech during the celebratory night, along with campus leaders like Honors Dean Mari Castañeda, Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, and Provost John McCarthy.

This speech was really just me taking the time to reflect on my time in Honors, my time in school, my time meeting my friends and professors, going through the crazy changes of my major, and finally ending up somewhere where I can be like, ‘Yes, I think I belong here’.

Jaileen Baptista `22

Baptista also recognized both the abnormality and opportunity experienced by her graduating class, due to the tumultuous nature of the online academic years of 2020-2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our class in general just kind of lost two years from being in the space and being on campus…it was definitely chaotic. But also, very eye opening,” she said.

After graduation, Baptista will be teaching middle-school mathematics at Montessori Middle School in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Her first job after college will incorporate both of her majors — mathematics and education — by offering a blend of social justice and math. At the school, Baptista will work with other educators to pioneer a “social justice inspired math curriculum”. Through this, Baptista hopes to inspire more women and people of color into math and STEM fields by offering a curriculum that students of color can relate to.

“Students get engaged and inspired and they say, ‘I see myself in this and I want to pursue it!’,” she explains.