Just the example Delaware State University graduates set by the way they live their lives, should be an inspiration to other high school students to go to Delaware State.
With the establishment of a presence in all three counties of Delaware, recruitment in and outside Delaware and throughout the world and new master's and doctoral programs, Delaware State University will continue to grow and attract even more qualified students.
This is a value-added college education if I have heard one described. And what is the most remarkable about Delaware State University graduates - is they just keeping giving back.
Working together we can strengthen Delaware State University and the students who attend it.
Getting to where Delaware State is today was a challenge my friends - a challenge proudly met by the people of this community and the Delaware State family.
Typically, historical black colleges and universities like Delaware State, attracted students who were raised in an environment where going to college wasn't the next natural step after high school.
Delaware State is no longer a college for African Americans without other choices, it is a university of choice.
I could not agree more. The students of Delaware State often looked to the school as their chance, their hand up, their hope. And they gave their all.
Upon arriving, meeting their teachers and signing up for classes, these students began to realize that their attendance at Delaware State University was not a goal achieved, but rather a dream being sewn - a first step, if you will.
My dad is from Panama; he came to the U.S. in 1971. He came to study chemical engineering at the University of Delaware. He thought he would go back, and then he met my mom here. I was born and mostly raised in Delaware.
By climbing a steeper road, the value and appreciation Delaware State students took and continue to take from their education and their experiences is just as great, if not greater, than students attending ivy league schools.
When Delaware State University was founded in 1890, it was not by choice, but by social reality.
And the university's reputation will only continue to grow as stories like Elaine's are spread. Delaware State University's motto 'a past to honor, a future to insure,' couldn't be any more fitting for this transitional period you are going through.
I take real big pride in that. Delaware, the support that I get from Delaware - I mean, there are thousands of people reaching out to me. Whenever I go home, it's just so welcoming anywhere I go, and everybody is noticing me.
Delaware State began as a school bent on service - teaching education, social services and nursing.
Delaware State has established itself as an institution of excellence in its own right and attracts a diversity of students from various races, socio-economic status and locations.
After completing a Delaware State education, they were afforded opportunities beyond anything they might have imagined - and they opened doors for themselves that surely would have remained closed if they only had a high school education.