Adrianne Toles, Managing Editor
Another successful semester has come and gone in the blink of an eye here at Daytona State College. The Student Life Center has been busy preparing to congratulate our graduating class on their success during the graduation ceremony scheduled on May 19th.
The past year and early months of 2021 have been anything but standard, yet as a college, students and faculty have all risen above every obstacle in pursuit of their goals.
Montanna Brumfield, a culinary management major at Daytona State, has been eagerly preparing for graduation full of pride of her accomplishments, ready to turn the page and begin the next chapter in her life and career. In the fall, she aims to attend The Culinary Institute of America in New York to get her master’s degree in baking and pastry.
The road she’s paved has not been an easy one. Working to pay for her college tuition and applying herself wholeheartedly to her education is no easy task.
“I had to give myself so many pep talks,” she said, recounting “so many times standing in the mirror like, ‘I know you’re tired, but we have got to get up, we’ve got to go to school.’”
The struggles we find ourselves confronted with on the journey to complete our goals are inevitable. “Really, it was just me making sure I did not give up,” Brumfield commented.
For Montanna Jordan, graduation signifies another accomplished goal on the way to achieving her dreams. And to the students graduating alongside her or others still on their way to actualizing their own goals she says, “Everyone moves at their own pace, it’s okay to take a break if you need to. Just make sure you come back to it and enjoy the journey.”
Like many of the students here at DSC, Kara Gustafson has not yet completed her nursing major but is focused and working hard to achieve her goal. She is planning to graduate in the upcoming Fall semester.
Inspired by those around her, Gustafson knew she wanted to go into nursing, and is paving her own path along the way. Between her personal, work and academic life she says she overcame her most difficult obstacles by finding balance.
The most valuable lesson that her time here at Daytona State, and a piece of advice she wants her classmates to know, is that “I can do anything I put my mind to. I was so scared of not being smart enough, there is nothing to be afraid of. You can do it, don’t doubt yourself.”
Today, we congratulate and bid farewell to the graduates of the Daytona State Falcons family as they go on to greater things like the many alumni that have come before. And the stage has already been set for generations of excellence that are sure to follow.
Daytona State students and alumni can also purchase a commemorative brick to be placed at the clock tower on the Daytona State campus as a marker of your time in DSC history. More information can be found in the student accounts office, or by contacting suzette_cameron@daytonastate.edu.