Below is the transcript of Keishla Perez’s speech at The Care Center’s 40th Anniversary Fundraising Party.
Hello, my name is Keishla Perez, and I am the Enrollment Coordinator at The Care Center. My job is to help our students feel welcomed, supported, and brave enough to begin.
This work is deeply personal for me.
The Dream I Had Lost
I enrolled in college for the first time when I was 17 and a mom of two, full of hope but lacking guidance. I struggled. Not because I wasn’t intelligent, but because I didn’t have support. Over the years, I tried and failed at multiple colleges until one day I just gave up.
I had accumulated student loan debt with no degree to show for it. Paying off that debt as a twenty-year-old single mom caused financial trauma. Year after year my Wela would ask when I would be going back to college. My answer was always the same “when the Lord pays for it.”
Each time she asked, grief would overtake my soul. I was mourning the dream I had lost.
My Wake Up Call
Then, seven years ago, my ten-year-old son said something that changed everything. He told me he didn’t need to go to school. That it wasn’t important. And because I was a college dropout…he didn’t need to prioritize school either.
For many parents, that might have felt disrespectful. For me, it was a wake-up call.
I realized I couldn’t ask my children to take education seriously, if I wasn’t willing to do the same.
A Free Liberal Arts College in Holyoke?
Not long after that, my twin sister told me she had just heard about a free college in Holyoke. It sounded familiar.
I remembered getting a flyer at my DTA orientation the year before and started digging through the cabinet in my living room. Then I found it: Bard Microcollege Holyoke.
We looked at each other and asked the same questions: What is a liberal arts degree? What kind of jobs can you get with it? We took our questions straight to Google and then called to ask about admissions.
Discovering the Possibility of Who I Could Become
When my twin and I both received acceptance letters from Bard, I had hope again. I still have it as a keepsake because Bard is the place where I fell in love with the possibilities of who I could become.
In our first weeks, representatives from local colleges came to talk about their bachelor’s programs. One name stayed with me: Mount Holyoke College, which was tuition free through the Frances Perkins Program. From that moment on, I set my sights on Mount Holyoke and promised myself I’d do everything I could to earn a 4.0 and stand out.
I started to envision myself as a powerhouse business woman in a suit. One who would have a calm demeanor but be impactful in her work. One who would one day live beyond the poverty cycle she found herself in; no longer dependent on the welfare system and public housing to survive.
Finding the Strength to Keep Going
On October 9, I labored through my midterms. And I’m not speaking metaphorically. The program director inflated a birthing ball I could use to get through my tests. My youngest son was born three hours later and I got an A on those midterms.
Yet those birthing pains were not the most painful moments of my time at Bard. During my final semester, I experienced two deeply personal losses. Even so, I kept going. I had to because I knew I could not allow myself to mourn the loss of my dream.
In spring 2021, I received the news that my twin and I were accepted to Mount Holyoke.
Coming Full Circle
When I was 17, I was struggling to survive.
Today, my son is 17 and he’s preparing to graduate high school and pursue a degree in mechanical engineering.
My daughter is right behind him, working toward graduation and dreaming of attending Florida State University to study law.
Returning to The Care Center as an employee has been an honor. I know firsthand the feelings our students fight through–inadequacy, despair, defeat.
But no matter how much life may be “lifing,” I get to be part of a team that cares too much to let students figure it out alone.
Every time I welcome a new student, every time I help her find her footing, I remember the transportation team that supported me, the daycare team that my toddler fell in love with, the professors who encouraged me, the staff who made The Care Center feel like a place I could call home… and I pay it forward.
