A 16-year-old girl named Anyeli Salguero who gave birth while in junior high school overcame challenges to graduate from Bryant High School and earned an acceptance into a university in the United States.
Anyeli, a Fairfax County resident, and a teen mother graduated alongside the 2023 set of Bryant High School, Arkansas in the United States. In her valedictory speech, she stated though their achievement put them in a common story but the difference in hers is the challenges.
“I know we all have different stories, but I know we all have one thing in common. And that is today, we can say we made it,” she said.
She stated that her story began with coming to the Unuted States when she was 7 from Honduras and she became pregnant at 14. Anyeli did not let teenage pregnancy stop her from finishing her education.
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Anyeli’s achievement also made her the first in her family to graduate from high school. She added that her story and ability to overcome all her obstacles caused the school officials to pick her to speak at the school’s graduation.
Recognizing the challenges of raising a child while pursuing her education, Angeli said she decided against giving up on her child. She remained determined and promised herself to nurture both her child and her academic aspirations.
“I just think that I’m making everybody proud, especially my daughter, too, because like my graduation cap says, ‘My diploma, her future,” she said. Anyeli said her biggest motivator, especially when walking almost a mile at seven months pregnant was her education.
Anyeli attributed her success to a program offered at her high school called Project Opportunity which helps students who are pregnant or parents secure a diploma.
The program also helps students secure essentials, such as diapers, food, strollers, and car seats. Anyeli added that her high school also provided transportation for parents to a daycare where she drops her baby.
“I think having my daughter at daycare downstairs helped a lot because I could get off the bus, drop her off to daycare, focus on school when I was there, then go home together,” she said.
Bryant’s principal Christopher Larrick said described Anyeli as a warrior who never gives up. He said he remembers the day he met her, then seven months pregnant, walking to school and helping her get transportation.
”She was actually in labor here at Bryant, on the stretcher, and the paramedics in our main office. And I was standing with her and I was holding her hand and she was crying and, we were telling her everything’s gonna be OK,” Larrick said.
During her senior year, Angeli interned at Genesys Works, a nonprofit in Washington that provides skills training, counseling, and coaching for high school seniors who live in underserved communities and lack access to the resources needed to achieve sustained economic mobility.
Anyeli is currently attending Northern Virginia Community College for her associate’s degree after which she will proceed to Wilson College in Pennsylvania to study Business. Advising people with similar situations, Anyeli said that caring for a baby is demanding, and it should not be used as a reason to neglect one’s schooling.
“Don’t put your baby as an excuse to not come to school. It might be hard some days to wake up, get the baby ready, and come to school. You have to have that motivation,” she said.
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