College graduation is a bittersweet moment in the life of a young adult. The excitement of embarking on a new adventure as a working professional is tempered by the sadness of parting ways with friends and, faculty, and staff who won’t soon be forgotten. But for Naika Saint Preux, her college degree has only one flavor, the good flavor of victory, “CW treated me like family since the first visit and they never stopped believing in me. They never stopped showing me what I am capable of— instead they kept shooting opportunities at me to see if I could handle it and I did. And guess what, we all did, because we are here today celebrating this day together.”
When Naika first learned English as a second language, she received a fair amount of criticism. “I struggled to overcome my fear to speak out loud because people made fun of my accent and still do today, but I know better to just ignore them. I will forever be the girl who learned English as a second language, but CW has helped me to be more comfortable in my own skin physically, mentally, and emotionally. The success we are celebrating today was conditioned by the amount of risk we were willing to take, but also by the friendship and the cultural exchanges we shared.”
Since Accounting is considered the language of business, one can say Naika obtained her bachelor’s degree fluently speaking three languages, “CW has provided us the material and the tools, and now it’s up to us to use them out there and mow down the competition. Let’s remember that it is the end of one chapter. Now get your pen ready to start the next chapter,” said Naika to the Class of 2018.