On Wednesday, August 15 all faculty and staff within the College of Health Sciences who gathered in the Student Union Building (SUB) for their fall college meeting were treated to a featured special guest and student speaker, Alexandro Amador.
Amador, a sophomore in the School of Allied Health Sciences Department of Community and Environmental Health and a member of the Boise State Honors College, spoke about his personal journey and experiences leading up to and during his first year of college at Boise State. Amador’s speech served as motivation and inspiration for faculty and staff to continue to bring meaningful education practices into the lives of students.
Amador’s speech highlighted the struggles his parents faced as immigrants from Mexico who made it to the United States when they were both just 17 years old. His parents first began working as fruit and vegetable pickers and after many years of hard work and dedication, Amador’s parents are now two successful business owners in Washington. After illustrating his family’s past Amador began to talk a bit more about his own academic history.
In high school, Amador described his motivation as non-existent. He explained that he did not try as hard as he should have and it was clearly displayed in his GPA. “During my final year in high school, I researched many schools, and I remember that Boise State stood out with their outstanding health sciences programs for undergraduates,” said Amador. After researching the many different programs within the College of Health Sciences, Amador found the motivation needed to complete an application and get accepted to Boise State University.
Following his acceptance to the university, Amador realized the importance of the opportunity he had been given by his parents’ hard work and he began to develop a deeper appreciation for his education. Amador talked about working as a server in his parents restaurant during the summer before attending Boise State.“While serving seems like a normal job for many, for me I got to see face to face the people that were funding my education,” said Amador. “Which was a very humbling experience that I bring with me here to Boise State University.”
Once classes started for Amador he began to thrive due to his new found appreciation for his education. “When I got to Boise State, I hit the ground running.” said Amador. “If I was not sleeping, eating or showering, I was studying. And it finally paid off a little bit further down the road. I remember when I first went to talk with my advisor, I walked in and told her, ‘I’m going to get all A’s this semester.’ Now, this advisor had been around the block a few times and she had seen a bunch of people come from my background who didn’t work as hard in high school so she gave me that, ‘you go do it, we will be here for you’ and it made me feel all the better when I actually did come back at the end of the semester with a 4.0 GPA.”
Amador continued to speak to his great success within his first year as he described the types of inspiration he found through other students and staff. “I was so successful in my first year mainly because of the resources and help that I received,” said Amador. “I feel that one of the things that makes Boise State so great is the quality of resources and quality of staff that is offered. Staff, you may think that with the new semester starting, you will be going through the motions again and again, that the information you talk about will only be remembered that week. But, I am here to inform you, that the material you share in your classes stays with students for a very long time and I believe that in itself is very impactful. The opportunities and knowledge we as students learn in your classes stays with us for the rest of our lives. I now know that when I graduate I will be successful and when I find my dream profession I will be successful and that is all thanks to you, the staff.”
The afternoon ended with smiles and laughter as Amador concluded his speech with an overview of the process he went through to prepare his speech. “I would like to share a little run down of my training up to this point. Before today, I had never publicly spoken before. My training was a mess! I had the help of my friend, and the measures that we took were drastic. To replicate this environment, we stacked two tables on top of one another, and then we didn’t have a mic, so we used a cup of ramen noodles. Now, if you think that was bad, we had a distraction gauntlet too. So my friend started throwing shoes at me, slamming doors, turning the lights on and off, it was intense. So I want you all to know that I am very honored to have the opportunity to come and speak to you all today, thank you.”