Everyone is human.
The simple statement packs power. It is what Madison College STEM Academy scholar, Camila Alcantara Perez, will explore as the student speaker at the 2026 Spring Commencement ceremony on May 15 at Alliant Energy Center Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
“Everyone’s human. There’s no harm in being yourself,” Alcantara Perez said. “Take life lightly because you can move on from everything.”
At just 18 years old, Alcantara Perez exudes the confidence of someone with decades of experience. As an Early College STEM Academy student, Alcantara Perez has spent the latter half of her high school career as a full-time Madison College student, accumulating about 70 college credits.
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Local high schools, including Alcantara Perez’s Verona Area High School, partner with Madison College to offer students the opportunity to earn college credit while completing their high school graduation requirements. The Early College program allows students a head start on their postsecondary education at little to no cost.
Alcantara Perez did not think she would go to college until a high school advisor recommended the program to her. Benefits offered by the program, especially the affordability, helped her see a completely different future for herself.
The WolfPack experience
And it did not take long for Alcantara Perez to become immersed in the WolfPack experience.
It is immediately apparent on a walk through Madison College’s Truax campus that Alcantara Perez has cultivated a sense of community.
She stops every few minutes to say hi to someone, compliment a classmate’s outfit, introduce a staff member she has worked with or share an anecdote about how one seemingly mundane office space was the backdrop for academic and personal success. During each interaction, she asks people specific, personal questions and genuinely cares to hear the answers.
That could be on account of her innate ability to absorb as much life as she can out of every experience she is granted.
Inspired to help
The program has propelled her toward becoming a physical therapist, a dream that was inspired by an injury she experienced as a teenager.
After hurting her back while working out, and going too long without addressing the pain, Alcantara Perez eventually sought physical therapy.
Her physical therapist, she said, walked her through all the exercises she needed to do but did not try to understand her as a person. That personal disconnect made Alcantara Perez disinterested in doing the work necessary to heal.
“I think I would have cared more if the physical therapist cared about me as a person,” she said.
The situation inspired her to pursue physical therapy so she can treat patients with a higher level of personal care.
That desire to help people in a health care setting was solidified in Alcantara Perez’s experiences at UW Health as a part-time food runner and during a research-based internship made possible with a Madison College partnership with Maydm.
A transformation
The electricity that radiates from Alcantara Perez when she talks about the people and programs she loved at Madison College is infectious. Her favorite class was Intro to Kinesiology, and her favorite spaces on campus were the Fitness Center and the lounge near the Early College program advisors’ offices.
The connections she made all led to Alcantara Perez’s transformation from someone who did not want to go to college to being the voice of her graduating class.
Alcantara Perez was encouraged to submit a commencement speech by Lazaro Enriquez, an advisor she worked with at the college.
In keeping with Alcantara Perez’s self-assured nature, she did not look up other speeches for inspiration before writing her own. She wanted the speech to be completely her own and reflect who she is, while also appealing to a diverse audience.
“We should be inspired by ourselves,” Alcantara Perez said.
After the Madison College commencement ceremony, Alcantara Perez will embark on a three-week trip to Spain with her girlfriend. The couple will return home the day before Alcantara Perez walks across the stage for her Verona Area High School graduation ceremony.
She will attend University of Wisconsin–La Crosse in fall and enter the pre-physical therapy program. She will enter as a late sophomore or early junior thanks to the foundation she built at Madison College.
While Alcantara Perez is entering her professional journey with a head start, she reminds others that there is no master timeline in life.
