Through art, dance, the written word, and community, we celebrated our cultural heritage and women from around the globe this International Women’s Day.

Our graduation celebrations are looking a little different this year due to the pandemic. Our Adult Education team opted for a small, outdoor, socially-distanced and masked gathering. It was a sweet reunion, full of tear-jerking moments as we celebrated the hard work and accomplishments of the women in our Adult Education Program.

My name is Griselda Hernández García, but I also go by Gray. I am from Mexico. I moved to Oregon back in 2006 at 19 years old with a 2-year-old daughter. I had no family here so it was difficult to start working and learning to drive. At that time, I wanted to return to school but felt like it was impossible since I had to work to support both my little girl and I.

As we end one of the most difficult years for most of the population in the world, we have the opportunity to start a new year. As I spent the last week reflecting on the last year, I discovered that everyone needed to adapt — to change, and change can’t be easy when the outside circumstances are the ones forcing us to change.