Checking emails can be a daunting task, but for Maria Monastra, checking her email meant finding out that all of her hard work, dedication and passion had paid off — she would be the next valedictorian of Cabrini College.
Monastra, senior English major, hails from West Chester, Pennsylvania and attended Cardinal O’Hara High School.
“Maria has had the drive to do well since Kindergarden,” Maria’s mother, Carol Monastra, said. She has always had a desire to achieve.”
Monastra currently has a 3.99 grade point average. In addition to her impeccable grades, Monastra is known for holding several leadership positions around campus and working over forty hours a week as both a nanny and an underwriting assistant at USLI.
Monastra brings passion and energy into each activity on campus that she has participated in. Others have known her as a student ambassador, an orientation leader, president of the Alpha Lambda Delta honors society, a master learner and an animal lovers club activist.
Anything that Monastra was not involved in, she was supportive of, from the Body Image Coalition events to ‘open mic nights’ to campus activities. According to Monastra, supporting her friends and all that they do has always been important to her.
“It’s been fun and it’s been easy to make everything work because I’ve been happy. It isn’t easy to do well when you aren’t happy,” Monastra said. “When you feel nurtured and cared about, you can do anything.”
“I’m so proud of her. She’s such a hard worker,” Monastra’s mother said. As soon as the crowds of students, family, friends and faculty swarmed her after the valedictorian announcement at the honors convocation on Friday, April 24, Monastra knew that all of her hard work had paid off.
Monastra feels that she has the English department to thank for her constant success. In particular, she has gotten extremely close with Dr. Michelle Filling-Brown.
“Dr. Filling has been a great influence because she’s been able to understand my ambition,” Monastra said. “I’ve been able to see her as a reflection of a lot of the things that I would like to be.”
“In the first semester that I taught Maria I quickly realized that she is a focused, driven and organized individual,” Filling-Brown, English professor, said.
According to Filling, Monastra’s enthusiasm is contagious and she helps to raise her peers to new heights.
If baby Maria was asked what she would like to be when she grew up, she would have said a clown, monkey and ice cream worker.
But now, almost graduating college, Monastra has decided to live out her dream of practicing law by heading to Virginia to continue her education at the College of William and Mary.
“I don’t think anyone always knows what they want to do with their futures, but I got to a certain point in my life where my personality lent itself to a legal profession,” Monastra said.
For Carol Monastra, law school was always something that she could picture her daughter doing.
“When Maria was three-years- old, I said this child is going to be a lawyer,” Monastra’s mother said.
Although her chapter at Cabrini is coming to a close, Monastra is very excited to continue on with her education at her top choice law school.
“I don’t want to stop learning when I graduate Cabrini or law school,” Monastra said. “I want to always be learning.”
As for incoming freshmen, Monastra has one piece of advice.
“Never forget where you came from,” Monastra said. “I don’t know where I’ll end up after law school, but what I do know is that I will not forget about Cabrini and where I started.”
