Still, he says, “This is the best time for educators to get into the profession.”
Cardona gave the keynote address at the “We Are ENHP” Scholarship Showcase," where students and faculty of UHart’s College of Education, Nursing, and Health Professions celebrate their research, creativity, and dedication.
“You are entering the best professions at a time in this country where our students and our patients need you the most,” Cardona said. “Today, we celebrate your projects, your commitment to being that essential member of our community that will ensure that we are healthy and that we will prosper as a country.”
To the assembled crowd in Gengras Student Union, Cardona had a simple message: you are essential.
“You are essential when you look a mother or a father in the eye and you assure them that their child will make a full recovery,” he said. “You are essential when you tell a loved one that their grandparent is going to be okay, and they're going to make it. You are essential when you help a child see something in themselves that they didn't even know they had.”
Miguel Cardona, Educator and Former Secretary of EducationYou are entering the best professions at a time in this country where our students and our patients need you the most
Cardona praised the work of the students and faculty in education, health and rehabilitation sciences, and nursing, who presented from the podium and in poster displays.
“I learned about prefabricated composite flows and human gait,” he said. “I learned about technology for occupational therapy at home. I learned about motion through prosthetics. About agility after an ACL tear. I wish I’d read that before I tore my ACL twice.”
In his Q&A session, Cardona acknowledged the current administration’s drive to close the federal Department of Education, and said that states will now have to come up with their own ways of replacing those functions. But he said the COVID-19 pandemic prepared educators to navigate tough and uncertain times. “We weathered that storm,” he said. “We're going to weather this storm too. I'm blessed that you're going to be frontliners in that work.”