CROEM graduates recognized at start of Women’s Week
By John McPhaul
jpmcphaul@gmail.com
On the occasion of initiating Women’s Week, the Graduate Students Association of the Educational Opportunities Residential Center of Mayagüez, known by its Spanish acronym CROEM ALUMNI, announced the recognition of 10 CROEM school graduates who have stood out in different professional fields.
“The performance of many CROEMITAS is known inside and outside of Puerto Rico,” said Wilson Nazario, executive director of CROEM ALUMNI. “The simple effort to participate as students in this innovative Teaching Center, created by Dr. Ramón Claudio Tirado in 1968, which requires being part of a residential experience in an educational project with an emphasis on science and mathematics, places us today in front of 10 brave, enterprising women who, above all, are determined to fight to make their dreams of a better quality of life come true for themselves and their peers. What they learned at CROEM has led them to stand out in their respective professional fields, understanding that there are thousands of CROEM students who today stand out not only as professionals, but also as exemplary citizens in our society.”
The emotional ceremony was attended by the well known international motivator and speaker, Reinaldo Camps Gerena, a member of the inaugural class of the center located in Cerro Las Mesas de Mayagüez, which has graduated more than 10,000 students.
“We are looking at a group of women who have used the CROEM public school as a vehicle to make their way to university studies, with diverse preparations, whose results today show that there are no obstacles for people who want to improve themselves,” Camps Gerena said. “We see how a young epidemiologist like Dr. Fabiola Cruz López makes her way creating a tool to save thousands of lives in the COVID pandemic. We are dealing with an expert in human capital such as Betsy Velázquez Rodríguez, an expert in selecting and training suitable personnel for a position in any company.”
Camps Gerena also highlighted the work of a prominent international real estate broker such as Adriana Vargas Hernández with a history of sales of $3 billion.
“We are glad to know that a CROEMITE like Dr. Lourdes E. Soto de Laurido is a dean at the prestigious UPR School of Medicine; we celebrate the career of a sports leader like Sonia Martínez de Vargas, whose career is well known in the world of sports; we congratulate a graduate like Jenny Cosme Figueroa who cares about her CROEM public school by contributing her time and resources; we have among us possibly the best resource for the sustainability of electrical service in Puerto Rico with the experience of engineer Ivette García Dunlap; we managed to stand out at NASA with the Puerto Rican who has reached the highest in the area of administration and supervision, engineer Olga González Sanabria; we have a scientist working hard on a research project in search of a cure for cervical cancer; and finally CROEM graduate student Migdalia González Arroyo has become a senator of our country. These women have managed to distinguish our school, which is why today, starting the Women’s Week, we honor them with our respect and admiration.”