Last Friday, May 31st, the end-of-year graduation ceremony was held for the 2nd year Baccalaureate students and the TAFAD and TSEI programs at CI Lope de Vega. The ceremony began at 18:00 PM in the school's gymnasium with a welcome address from the headmistress, Ms. Áurea González, who encouraged the graduates to continue with the same enthusiasm throughout their academic and professional lives.
The ceremony continued with a speech by the class's patron, Dr. Rafael Alemany, Professor of Catalan Philology at the University of Alicante and a distinguished alumnus of the school, who shared his experiences and anecdotes with everyone present. He spoke of the old building, located in the center of Benidorm, when recess was spent on Levante Beach itself. He also offered several pieces of advice to all the young people celebrating this important day in their lives.
In a more relaxed tone, it was the students' turn. Two high school students began, reminiscing with great emotion about their early years at the school, "when they would go out to the playground to play ball without a care in the world." Next, the TSEI spokesperson thanked all her teachers for their dedication during the two years of the program. Finally, the TAFAD student spoke, delivering a very articulate speech that included a couple of jokes that made everyone laugh.
After the presentation of the graduation certificates and the corresponding photos, it was the turn of Mr. Vicente Fuster, representative of the school's ownership, who spoke about the values instilled at Lope de Vega and which have marked numerous generations of students, as is the case with the current graduating class.
To close the ceremony, videos were shown recalling countless anecdotes, trips, and shared experiences from the many years shared by all those who on Friday brought their journey as students of Lope de Vega to a close. The final touch was musical, as a TSEI student delighted everyone on the piano, and a high school student graced the stage with her voice. mezzo-soprano, provoking a great final ovation.
Then it moved on to the now traditional picaeta, in which teachers, students and family members shared a pleasant evening to bring a brilliant educational and life journey to a close.
INTERVENTION BY RAFAEL ALEMANY FERRER IN THE GRADUATION ACT OF THE XLVIII PROMOTION OF STUDENTS OF BATXILLERAT I CICLES FORMATIUS OF THE INTERNATIONAL COL·LEGI “LOPE DE VEGA” OF BENIDORM
(Benidorm, May 31, 2013)
Good afternoon.
The Lope de Vega School has bestowed upon me the great honor of serving as godparent to the 48th graduating class of Baccalaureate and Vocational Training students at the traditional and heartwarming graduation ceremony and presentation of diplomas, which is held at the end of each academic year. I express my sincere gratitude to the family that owns this school and to its headmistress, who tirelessly and effectively overcame all obstacles that seemed to prevent me from sharing these special moments with you.
I am one of the many Benidorm residents who graduated from this school. I entered it in the early 1960s. I remember precisely the day my mother first took me to the school's original facilities, located in a house on the old Ricardo Street (now Dr. Pérez Martorell Street), very close to the Torrejó, owned by the family of Don Carles Llorca Timoner, who collaborated with Don Juan Fuster Zaragoza in the establishment in 1956 of the academy that formed the embryo of the current school.
But let's return to my entrance at the Lope. With the mixed feelings I've mentioned, my mother and I went to the headmaster's office, Don Juan Fuster Zaragoza, located in what must have been an interior room on the first floor of the large house. And everything went very well. I felt reassured by the warm tone of the conversation between Don Juan and my mother, which is quite understandable given that there had always been an excellent relationship of neighborliness and friendship between the maternal families of the school's founder and mine, a relationship particularly tested during the difficult years of the Spanish Civil War. Such was my entrance at the Lope.
The building that housed the original school consisted of a ground floor and two upper floors. The ground floor was occupied by the primary school boys and girls and the secondary school girls, while the two upper floors accommodated the male students in the same grade, as well as the headteacher's office and the laboratory. Initially, Lope de Vega students had to travel to the Jorge Juan Secondary School in Alicante and the Padre Eduardo Vitoria Secondary School in Alcoy to take their exams at the end of each school year, as external students. This continued until the school received official recognition from the then Ministry of National Education, initially only for its boys' section and, shortly thereafter, for its girls' section as well.
During my first years at the center, I will share with teachers Donya Marisa Lloret and Donya Rosa Zaragoza, with the priceless preparation of those who will pass, in June 1962, the entrance exam at the Batxillerat before a tribunal chaired by Don Juan Fuster and integrated, also mateix, by Donya Angelita Barceló, expert in matèries d'Humanitats, and Mrs. Antonia Consuelo, specialist in Mathematics. In the house on Ricardo's ancient street, he will attend the first three courses of the Elementary Batxillerat (equivalent to the ESO d'ara), while the fourth and fifth and sixth grade of the Superior Batxillerat (equivalent to the current Batxillerat), along with the Pre-University course, will also visit the desired facilities that the school currently occupies. Not to mention that the change is going to be noticed, because a recycled family house with a teaching center with a modern and splendid building conceived from the beginning to this finality was not comparable. It will suffice to say that, during the stage of the first school, the precarious laboratory practices are something in which he had followed the kitchen of the house and that the Physical Education classes were taught on the Levante beach, which was, moreover, the lloc of the leisure time. However, that old college had a special flavor, and evoking it after so many times leads to linking it to the birth of our first friendships and, therefore, to the origins of my development in society.
The curriculum I followed consisted of the following stages: a) the aforementioned entrance exam; b) a four-year cycle, at the end of which a Revalidation exam was taken at the corresponding institute, the passing of which gave access to the title of Elementary Baccalaureate; c) a two-year cycle, also culminating in a Revalidation exam, which qualified as a Higher Bachelor of Science or in Humanities, and d)Finally, there was the Pre-University course, culminating in a demanding Maturity Test held at the University. All of this constituted a solid and, above all, stable educational structure, far removed from the lamentable, irresponsible, and frivolous practice of rapid reforms and counter-reforms, with pathetic results, that the educational community, and ultimately society as a whole, has been suffering for far too long. Education is one of the fundamental pillars of a country's well-being and development and, therefore, a matter of national importance in which all political parties must strive to achieve maximum convergence to guarantee the stability and essential success of the system.
Frankly, I consider myself fortunate to have been able to study at Lope de Vega during the historical period in which I did. Until well into the second half of the last century, there was no public or private secondary school in Benidorm or its surrounding area. It wasn't until 1968 that a branch of the Jorge Juan Institute in Alicante opened in Vila Joiosa. Before the founding of Lope de Vega, teenagers in Benidorm had to resort to academies and private tutoring to acquire the necessary education to pass the exams they took as independent students at the corresponding provincial institutes. If our school hadn't been established, many of us who now hold university degrees might not have them, since most families at the time couldn't afford to study outside of Benidorm, and independent education wasn't the most appealing option for students.
Furthermore, it goes without saying that the substantial merit of an educational institution lies in the quality of its teaching staff. We must state this clearly and emphatically, especially now that Information and Communication Technologies are so often idolized to the point of excess, frequently confusing what, despite their undeniable usefulness, are merely tools at the service of certain objectives with those objectives themselves. No: in education, no material resources or sophisticated technologies can replace a competent teacher capable of inspiring their students with enthusiasm for what they teach and the values they transmit. Well, the teaching staff at Lope de Vega, from which I was fortunate enough to benefit, was of a very high average level and possessed a level of enthusiasm that far surpassed the limited material conditions inherent in teaching at that time.
In the Sciences subjects there is the opportunity to take part in the classes of professors with the founder and director of the school itself, Don Juan Fuster - an example of home of bé and with an excessive faith in his project's ambitions -, Donya Carmen García, Donya Cecilia González, Don Pedro Fuster or Don Ernesto Ruiz, all of whom are competent in the subjects that they explain, good pedagogues and great people. On the other hand, in the disciplines of Humanities, which are the ones that most interest me for personal reasons, I will not sufficiently appreciate the good knowledge, ple of decisive stimuli for the future, of Mrs. Laura Lloret, Mrs. Vicenta Lloret, Mrs. Pepita Rubio, Mrs. María Ignacia Machado, Mrs. Emilia Monerris, Mr. Manuel Monterde, Don Blas Iborra, Don Alberto Roca, Don Mario Ruiz, Donya Adela Alegre, Donya María Mayor or Donya Mireille Gil.
Neither can nor vull oblidar the kind and lucid priest Don Tomás García, who taught Catholic Religion under the innovative stimuli of the brand new Vaticà II Council, nor the severe and efficient Don Eduardo Segado, responsible for Physical Education and organizer of the spectacular physical-sports festivals of the course, nor the versatile Don José Albero, capable of counteracting the dogmatisms of the ineffable Formation of the National Spirit with more creative substitute initiatives for the formation of a singing group. I finished with the evocation of two great professors of Drawing, the painters Don Asdrúbal Dapena and Don Antonio González (“Antogonza”).
By the end of life, many of the professors are thought to be, dissorted, no longer among us, but their good fortune was generated by the survivors through the educational company of which they will be part and of all those who will have the happy opportunity to train us for their master's degree.
The Lope de Vega college, its founder and his second family, together with its successful faculty of professors, are worthy of the gratitude and recognition of the people of Benidorm, and, particularly, of all those who, like mateix, are aware that, in the sense of the opportunity that the creation of this center will provide, it can be mai no We will finally arrive at assuring the personal and professional goals that, fortunately, we have done as well.
Today marks the graduation of the 48th class of students from Baccalaureate and Vocational Training programs, which is undoubtedly a cause for joy and, perhaps, also a certain nostalgia for a stage that is closing to give way to another new one that is still uncertain.
From my position as a former student with a certain amount of life and professional experience accumulated over the years, what can I suggest to the members of this graduating class that I am so pleased to sponsor at this event?
First, however difficult the circumstances you may face from now on, always maintain a positive spirit and do not shy away from overcoming them with courage, conviction, and energy. Overcoming obstacles in personal and professional life always involves some pain, but at the same time, it serves as a boost to our self-esteem. A culture of constant effort and tenacity is, in my opinion, the only one that allows us to achieve excellent results and stimulating inner satisfactions that give meaning to our lives.
Secondly, when choosing your educational and professional path, whether university degrees or other career options, be guided primarily by your vocation and a sincere assessment of your actual abilities. Failing to do so is a sure path to personal unhappiness and professional mediocrity. Do your best to choose what you enjoy and what you feel most suited for: only then will you be well-positioned to develop properly as individuals and to serve society effectively. Everything else, believe me, will follow.
Thirdly, that they always have their own ethical, reasonable and well-founded criteria, which allows them to be authentic in the face of the inevitable pressures or siren songs of an increasingly complex world in which not everything is always what it seems.
I, in particular, that, as mentioned above, they always remain exquisitely respectful of difference, that is, of the various ideological, religious, sexual, linguistic or otherwise options. "Being respectful" does not just mean that you tolerate your mutual coexistence, but rather something more difficult and enriching: that, in order to do so, you apply yourself to discerning the part of truth that is in each of these options, even if you do not share them. Deixen de banda els absoluts, since history shows that cap d'ells has not followed the magic trick capable of solving the permanent vital and social problems. They have the certainty that their seus criteris, the seua manner of seeing things, no matter how magnificent and fair they seem, are nothing more than one of the molts both of whom can and must coexist productively.
And so, after these sincere suggestions, which I would like you to keep in mind, and with renewed gratitude to my school, which is also yours, I can only wish the very best to each and every one of the students in the 48th graduating class of Baccalaureate and Vocational Training at Lope de Vega School, who will soon be setting sail in a new boat and, I'm sure, with favorable winds. I don't need to tell you, from the bottom of my heart, that you can always count on my advice and help during this journey, should you ever need it.
I wish a long and fruitful life to this worthy educational institution and to all those who, day after day, continue to keep it standing and developing it, as worthy successors of those who laid its first stones and fought to the point of exhaustion, sometimes from a discreet silence, against all kinds of obstacles and misunderstandings.
Many thanks to all, my affection and my most sincere friendship.
