Eight weeks into his first semester at Central Connecticut State University, Miguel Cardona discovered he was failing every class.

The first-generation college student held back tears outside of Willard-DiLoreto Hall as he read that gut-wrenching first midterm report.

“For a moment, I felt like I didn’t belong, that I should leave,” the former secretary of the Department of Education under President Joe Biden told an American University audience at Butler Board Room on September 18.

At a moment when he could’ve given up, Cardona instead thought of his grandparents, who left Puerto Rico to create better opportunities for their family. He remembered his mother, who dropped out of school in the ninth grade to care for her five younger siblings.

“I realized how fortunate I was to carry the torch for them and [that] their sacrifices were more,” Cardona said. “I stopped the pity party, and I got my butt to work.” (He finished the semester with straight Bs and never got a grade lower than that for the remainder of his college career.)  

“It wasn’t that I got smarter that day, it was that I realized who I was and that I had the potential to achieve.”

During an hour-long conversation hosted by Students for Change and the Kennedy Political Union for Hispanic Heritage Month, Cardona talked about perseverance and the power of education to help students of all backgrounds find their place in the world.

As the first person in his family to graduate from college, Cardona became a fourth-grade teacher in his hometown of Meriden, Connecticut. In 2003, at age 27, he became the youngest principal in Connecticut history when he took the helm at the Hanover School.

After 10 years as principal, he served as assistant superintendent for teaching and learning in Meriden. In 2019, he was appointed the state’s commissioner on education—a launching pad to being nominated by Biden in 2020 to become the 12th secretary of the Department of Education.

Cardona recalled how role models across his educational journey pushed him forward, from his family to his second-grade art teacher, Mr. O’Neill, and Ms. Ransom, who told him during his junior year that he would make a good teacher.

Cardona said the classroom should be a place where everyone belongs. He challenged AU students to continue to keep that at the center of valuing education as “a public good.”  

“I have more confidence in this generation than in my generation,” Cardona said. “So, inform yourself and recognize that the more people feel a sense of belonging, the more likely they’re going to reach their full potential. And in this country, we all win when people do well.”