TARTAGLIONE DELIVERS CAMELOT SCHOOL COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS

PHILADELPHIA – June 11, 2008 -- Delivering a commencement address today for Philadelphia students who discovered a second chance at success, state Sen. Christine Tartaglione recognized the parallels between her recovery from paralysis and their struggle to overcome the perils facing students in Pennsylvania’s urban schools.

Drawing on their shared experience, Tartaglione praised the staff at Magee Rehabilitation Hospital in Philadelphia for devoting themselves to helping severely injured citizens and soldiers recover.

“We found experts who, instead of giving us odds, gave us hope. We found professionals who challenged conventional thinking, who challenged themselves and who challenged us. Magee and Camelot are both in the business of returning to people their future,” she said.

“I can’t imagine a more beautiful thing to do. The greatest gift any of us will ever receive is opportunity.”    

At the University of Pennsylvania’s Irvine Auditorium, Tartaglione addressed 164 graduates of three Camelot schools for Philadelphia students who worked through academic and disciplinary problems.   She gave her most personal and public account to date of her struggle to recover from a 2003 accident that left her without the use of her legs. 

“A few years ago, I was cruising on a boat, soaking in the warmth, feeling the spray of the sea and the sun on my face and the wind in my hair,” she said. “A few minutes later, I was staring at the lights on the ceiling of a hospital room, feeling nothing at all.”

The students, who graduated from Excel Academy, Daniel Boone and Camelot at Woodhaven, had fallen behind before regrouping to receive what nearly one-third of urban school students never do-a high school diploma.  Tartaglione credited teachers and administrators at the schools who, she said, could have chosen more lucrative options in life rather than facing obstacles of an education system overwhelmed by poverty, crime and drugs.

“The teachers and directors and administrators here today could have done something else. They could have made more money, bought a Hummer, filled it with gas and driven out of here,” she said. “ You can too. I hope you won’t.”

"The fight to create a community of opportunity needs doctors, lawyers, teachers, police officers, social workers, and yes, maybe even a state Senator or two.  This fight needs people who decide not to buy a Hummer and drive out of town but will instead buy a home and build a neighborhood", Tartaglione told the students.