EAST ORANGE, NJ — East Orange City Council and the East Orange Board of Education recognized every graduate of the Class of 2018 with a citywide graduation party in the Ampere Parkway section on Saturday, June 30.
East Orange 5th Ward Councilman Mustafa Brent and his wife, Kareemah Williams-Brent, joined forces with his Councilwoman Alicia Holman, Mayor Ted Green and the rest of the council and BOE to honor the Class of 2018, whether they graduated from preschool, kindergarten, elementary, middle or high school, college and beyond with a citywide party.
“The day started off beautifully, with the All Ward Historic Bike Tour. Now, here we are, down here with Kareemah and Mustafa Brent and also (Councilwoman) Alicia Holman at the graduation party for the entire city of East Orange,” said Mayor Ted Green on Saturday, June 30. “This is a good thing going on in the city, because it shows that we are all working together and making sure that something goes on throughout this city and folks have been seeing that. I’m so happy to be a part of the graduation party. Congratulations to the Class of 2018.”
Kareemah Williams-Brent, wife of East Orange 5th Ward Councilman Mustafa Brent, agreed with Green and congratulated the Class of 2018.
“Like Mayor Green said, we just wanted to congratulate all of the graduates throughout the city of East Orange,” she said at the event. “We celebrate so many things, we wanted to celebrate academic achievement and academic excellence. So again, thank everyone so much for coming out to support our community.”
Kareemah Williams-Brent is a BOE employee and helped to promote the party in the city.
“She’s actually working on her master’s degree as well,” said Mustafa Brent of his wife. He served on the BOE prior to being elected to the council. “So she said, ‘We always celebrate a lot of different things in the city; why don’t we come together and celebrate something positive for our families and our students and our citizens within the city?’ So that’s what we’re out here doing today. Leadership is paramount, especially when you’re talking about education, because the level of intellectual aptitude that our children aspire to, it comes from the top down.”
Councilman Brent’s mother, Amina Al-Mutazzim, a teacher in the Newark Public Schools, also attended the party. She said that aptitude also comes from home, too.
“I’m an educator myself. I’ve been teaching for 35 years and I do promote education. I’ve always done it all my life and teaching for me is a joy,” said Al-Mutazzim on Saturday, June 30. “One thing I taught my children to do is to focus — focus in on the subject is very important. Graduation is a very big step in the life of children. We should focus on the positive things, getting them to understand that education is the key to life. My point that I focus on mostly is reading. Reading opens the doors to everything.”
Holman said Al-Mutazzim’s point was well said and fit well with the larger reasons behind she supported the citywide graduation party.
“We’re out here just celebrating education, celebrating all of those who have graduated … we’re doing it all,” said Holman on Saturday, June 30. “It’s very important to celebrate our youngsters, to celebrate our kids, our children, on their hard work. It’s to show how important education is. You need your education to go further in this world. It used to be about your high school diploma. You need your high school diplomas, you need your (bachelor’s degrees), you need your master’s and now it looks like your doctorate to be competitive in this world, so we have to stress and express how important education is in the world to our children.”
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