He graduated from Mount Carmel School in 1986 and went on to earn a bachelor of science in communications from Arizona State University.
Each and every year since 1998, Mount Carmel School has recognized one outstanding individual for its Distinguished Graduate Award. Recipients of this award have been noted leaders in business, government, and the community who represent the school’s trademark values of faith, excellence, and success.
This year’s Distinguished Graduate of the Year is 1986 graduate, Alfred Borja Ada.
Ada was recognized at the school’s concluding event for Catholic Schools Week 2009, Family Night, which was held last Friday.
Always committed to education, Ada later returned to school to earn his masters of arts degree in educational administration from the University of Guam and is currently a candidate in the educational doctoral program at Argosy University.
His commitment to education, however, is not limited to his own education, for he has dedicated his entire life to educating and helping others.
Fresh out of college, in 1993 Ada came back home to work as a lead counselor at Northern Marianas College, where he helped high school students with their educational plans. With the education bug in him, he then moved to San Vicente Elementary School as an elementary school teacher.
While with the San Vicente Canaries, he got actively involved in several extra-curricular activities, and went so far as to organize the first island-wide Christmas parade.
In 1999, Ada left education for a bit to serve as a social worker for the CNMI’s family court system. And while the family court allowed him to continue helping children, he couldn’t ignore the educator within calling him back to school. So, in 2000, he went back into the Public School System to lead William S. Reyes Elementary School as its principal. And as if that weren’t enough, while at WSR, he found time to also teach as an adjunct instructor at Northern Marianas College.
More recently, in 2006, Ada was tapped to be the principal of Kagman High School. And while the challenges at Kagman were many, he did not flinch and took it as an opportunity to further serve the people of the Northern Marianas.
Indeed, there is no questioning this graduate’s commitment to education. Thousands of students and hundreds of teachers have been blessed by his service, his guidance, and his love. He is the embodiment of the observation by Henry Brooks Adams, “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” Thus, it isn’t an exaggeration to say that our community is a better place because of him.
As this year’s Distinguished Graduate of the year, Ada joins a long line of other distinguished graduates, including:
• 1964 graduate, Gov. Benigno Fitial,
• 1966 graduate, former lt. governor and retired Judge Jesus C. Borja,
• 1968 graduate, former Rep. Felicidad Ogumoro,
• 1969 graduate architect and entrepreneur, Efrain F. Camacho,
• 1969 graduate, Rita Kazuma-Guerrero
• 1977 graduate, Board of Education Chairwoman Lucia Blanco-Maratita.
• 1978 graduate, former lt. governor and Rep. Diego T. Benavente,
• 1979 graduate, attorney Brien Sers Nicholas
• 1984 graduate, Dr. Norma Ada,
• 1988 graduate, Northern Marianas College Dean Dr. Debra Tudela Cabrera
