 Good evening everybody. I'm Gladys Montalvo, and I was chosen as the ambassador for Wisconsin Indian Head Technical College in Rice Lake. I will start off with kind of telling you a little bit of my story. I am originally not from Wisconsin. I am from Eagle Pass, Texas. It's a very small town. You search on it on Facebook is where the hell is that place? Growing up there, it's 99% Hispanic. There is about 85% unemployment rate. I didn't have a great education base growing up. My mom had actually dropped out of high school at the end of 9th grade. My father did graduate high school, but he wasn't in my life at all. The only people that had graduated college at all was my aunt and uncle, and they're both educators at an elementary level. Seeing my mom struggle with me and my sister and being a single parent made me want to take advantage of my education. I graduated in 2003 with a distinguished diploma from Eagle Pass High School. I was the first one to graduate high school from our 20-something siblings in 25 years. After that, I moved to Wisconsin where I married my husband. I had my first child, and I waited for him to be about 9 months old. Then I attended the University of Wisconsin of Barron County. It was kind of hard to get involved in any activities or clubs because when you're there, the professors teach you by textbook. They give you a textbook. They say, learn this chapter. We're going to have a test on it in a week. You're very stressed out. You have no time for anything at all. I did graduate in 2007 with my emphasis on ethnic studies. Then I went on to the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, to get my French major and Spanish minor. I actually was able to get a job as a human resources translator for Jacqueline's Big Turkey in 2007. Trying to remember. While I was there, my job was pretty much to be a translator, but then since they saw that I had potential, they immediately gave me the opportunity to run the company store to help with payroll, account receivables, accounts payable. I would do the translating for Jacqueline himself. And I felt like it was a great opportunity, but I was never satisfied in that position. They never wanted to give me full time. So I thought, why not go into an education in accounting and make it a full time thing? So I decided that I wanted to try out WITC, but my aunt and uncle were not happy. They always felt that a university is the only place that you could get a great education. And obviously I didn't listen to them because I'm standing here in front of you. I really have to say that the reason I wanted to come to WITC is the first time I went through those doors and to inquire about the program. The staff was so friendly. They always point you to the right direction. If they don't know the answer, they will find somebody who has the answer. They don't just leave you there waiting or frustrated. They want to see you happy and succeed. The other thing is I do have a supportive husband, which pretty much lets me do whatever I want. But you know, without his support, I would not be able to do this and I am very grateful to him. I'm grateful to my children to being so supportive and understanding that mom is busy. But the number one people that I would like to thank would be our professors. They never stop. They never quit. They keep going until we understand it. My professor is pretty much Scott Elsa. He's pretty much the main accounting teacher for me. But I will have to say he will go over it and over again. If I don't understand that he'll say, come in on Friday at seven in the morning and I will be here to teach you. He will do anything of and beyond to help you out. And I really appreciate that of him. He says, if any day your child is like you tell me and now you know the assignment. And I love that. I love that they're supportive and you know that you can count on them. He's also given us so many assignments that I know that when I graduate with my accounting program, I will be able to succeed in the environments, you know, in the employment industry without, you know, thinking that I won't be confident. And that's another thing about WITC. I've been able to be a part of business professionals of America. And we were able to compete and I actually placed in accounting. So I will be going to nationals in Chicago next week. This is the kind of confidence that you cannot get at a university or at a classroom. This is something extra that gives you the confidence to say, when I graduate here, I can get an employment and I can succeed at it. So I really want to thank, you know, the whole Wisconsin Technical College system. And of course, Robert W. Baird, because without his donation today to us, it's the kind of support like that that makes us continue our education and become members of society. Thank you.