In its commencement ceremony on Wednesday, Dominica State College’s Class of 2025 was moved by two inspirational voices—valedictorian Amanda Juliana Joyce Carbon and keynote speaker Dr. Natasha Maxime whose messages of perseverance, faith, and purpose resonated with the DSC graduands.
Amanda Carbon took the stage not as a flawless overachiever, but as someone who had wrestled with doubt and come out stronger. Reflecting on a dismal 25% mechanics test that nearly made her quit, she revealed how failure became a turning point rather than a period.
“DNA may be inherited, but transcription—that’s where choice begins,” she said, weaving her love of biology into metaphors about personal growth.
Her gratitude to her support system—her mother whom she called “the heart of my life,” along with siblings, lecturers, and friends—shone through. She closed her address with three guiding principles:
-Failures are formative
-Discipline over motivation
-Guard your belief in yourself
Quoting Natasha Bedingfield’s lyric, “Today is where your book begins,” Carbon reminded her classmates that they are still writing their life stories.
Keynote speaker, endocrinologist Dr. Natasha Maxime, offered a deeply personal roadmap for life beyond graduation. Framed around the biblical triad of faith, hope, and love, Dr. Maxime’s reflections struck a chord in a nation still healing from past storms—both literal and emotional.
She likened faith to trusting a pilot during turbulence, citing Hebrews 11:1. Recounting her own experiences with loss, she urged students to find strength in unseen certainty.
Her memories of post-Hurricane Maria devastation gave life to her second point—hope—a force she described as action-oriented and transformative. She concluded with love, which she described as “the greatest of these,” advocating for kindness across all walks of life, from classrooms to farms.
Together, Carbon and Dr. Maxime offered a symphony of spirit and strength: one from the threshold of adulthood, the other from the wisdom of experience. Carbon called her peers to embrace failure as part of their becoming. Maxime called them to be beacons of compassion in uncertain times.
