Through the years you, the Delaware State family and your predecessors, have faced many challenges. You worked through them with fierce determination and good will, and you have made great progress.
Their families helped them realize that there was more out there for them. These students came to Delaware State because of its inexpensive tuition, closeness to home, and solid reputation.
They were often the first students in their family to go to college and the very idea of higher education was still foreign to them. They had to make a conscious and often difficult decision to come to college.
Getting to where Delaware State is today was a challenge my friends - a challenge proudly met by the people of this community and the Delaware State family.
The teachers were focused on helping these students. The students benefited from hands-on teaching and a faculty who cared about them and their success in life and soon the students began to believe in themselves and the reality that they could make something of their lives.
Maya Angelou, the famous African American poet, historian, and civil rights activist who is hailed be many as one of the great voices of contemporary literature, believes a struggle only makes a person stronger.
Lance Armstrong, the famous cyclist and more importantly, cancer survivor, has said 'if you ever get a second chance for something, you've got to go all the way.'
Just the example Delaware State University graduates set by the way they live their lives, should be an inspiration to other high school students to go to Delaware State.
I think this is one of the greatest strengths of this school. Not only do the students go on to achieve great milestones in their own lives, they never forget their roots and the school that gave them the chance they needed to improve their lives and their families' lives.
I remember coming to this college in the 1960s as a new legislator when a road divided the campus - and it was not fully paved at that - and no wall defined the campus from the highway.
This is a value-added college education if I have heard one described. And what is the most remarkable about Delaware State University graduates - is they just keeping giving back.
And the university's reputation will only continue to grow as stories like Elaine's are spread. Delaware State University's motto 'a past to honor, a future to insure,' couldn't be any more fitting for this transitional period you are going through.
After completing a Delaware State education, they were afforded opportunities beyond anything they might have imagined - and they opened doors for themselves that surely would have remained closed if they only had a high school education.
