Vanier College is pleased to announce that Martina Padilla Paz, a graduate of the Business Administration, Accounting Management program, has been named Valedictorian for the class of 2023-2024. When five hundred graduates from Vanier College gather at Place des Arts in Théâtre Maisonneuve on June 26, 2024, to celebrate the end of their CEGEP studies, Martina will bid farewell to Vanier on their behalf.
In choosing Martina, members of the Valedictorian selection committee were impressed with her commitment to Vanier and her recipe for success. As the daughter of parents from Argentina who came to Canada to start a new life from scratch, Martina represents a good number of Vanier students who want to do their parents proud. She shared the words of wisdom from her mother that guided her throughout her studies.
"I grew up with a saying my mother often repeated whenever I felt overwhelmed or stressed: "Start with the necessary, then do what's possible, and suddenly you'll find yourself doing the impossible." This quote, from Saint Francis of Assisi, was a mantra for her during our immigration to Canada," says Martina. It became Martina's mantra as well at Vanier where, step by step, she made her way. Like all students, that meant waking up early, attending classes, doing assignments on time, and getting to know classmates and teachers - one class at a time, one day at a time, one step at a time.
Getting the necessary done, allowed Martina to move on to doing the possible such as obtaining a Certificate in Women's and Gender Studies, and volunteering at the Scotiabank Vanier College National Marketing Case Competition where she met people from across Canada.
Finally, she found herself doing what might have seemed impossible at the start of her Cegep studies. In spring 2024, she spent a month doing an internship in Namibia working with a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving cheetahs from extinction - the Cheetah Conservation Fund.
"Amongst other things, this experience taught me that each of us holds the potential to achieve what seems impossible. As for myself, coming from a small town in Argentina, it feels surreal to say that because of my hard work, I was able to pursue an internship in Africa," states Martina.
Immensely grateful to her parents and her teachers, Martina urges her fellow graduates to seize every opportunity in life, and soon they will find themselves doing the impossible.
For Martina, the next step into the future will take her to the John Molson School of Business at Concordia where she plans on obtaining a Bachelor of Commerce in Management.
Congratulations to Martina Padilla Paz, and best of luck to her for the future.
