Anyone who had the privilege of attending last year's Tri-County Annual Awards Dinner, will remember the inspiring words of high school student speaker, Claudia Olivero. Claudia was poised and engaging as she addressed 900 guests at Tri-County's largest event ever.
(Watch video of her speech)
Claudia humbly gave us a glimpse into her life growing up in Paterson with her single mother who did her best to take care of Claudia and her 3 younger brothers. Life was difficult enough when her mom was diagnosed with brain cancer. Claudia had to step up to be a second mom to the boys: doing all the shopping and meal prep, helping her brothers with their homework, looking after them, as well as, doing all the laundry and cleaning.
Incredibly, in the midst of all these adult responsibilities, Claudia persevered in her own studies at Mary Help of Christians Academy maintaining excellent grades while taking Honors and AP courses. Claudia and her mom credit the generosity of the Tri-County donors for making it possible for her to attend this high quality, values-based school which fed her intellect, understood and cared for her emotionally, and nurtured her spiritually during this challenging time.
Thankfully, her mother recovered which allowed Claudia to dream about graduating high school and attending college.
We are excited to report that Claudia graduated from Mary Help of Christians Academy! She is pictured above wearing her National Honor Society stole. Claudia received many college acceptances and was thrilled to choose American University where she received a generous. financial aid package.
We wish her much success as she heads to campus in a just a few weeks! We are so proud to be part of Claudia's journey of overcoming hardship to achieve great things.