Nina Giacobbe and Basant Zaki celebrate their accomplishments at the College of Staten Island’s Honors Convocation.

The 2014 graduates of The Melissa Riggio Higher Education Program received their certificates of completion during the College of Staten Island’s Honors Convocation.

John Ferrandino, Nina Giaccobe, Arthur King, Alex Medina and Basant Zaki were joined by their family, friends, mentors and faculty to celebrate all that they have accomplished during their time as students with The Melissa Riggio Program.

In what can only be described as a joyful evening, the students were filled with an enormous sense of pride and accomplishment. It has been an incredible journey for these 5 young adults to get where they are today.

As quoted by John Ferrandino in his speech during the Tuesday May 27th program reception, “ as the legendary baseball player Derek Jeter says, there may be people who have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do”.