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Bergen Community College alumna Alexie Kotfisz, ‘26, earned the special honor of being named the valedictorian for the Class of 2026. For her perfect 4.0 GPA, Kotfisz spoke at the Commencement 2026 Ceremony, where she shared her story of finding her path at Bergen.
“Being valedictorian is an incredible honor to be able to represent others by showing my path and knowing there’s so many people who can feel the same struggles,” said Kotfisz, of Dumont. “And it shows all the perseverance and sacrifices that so many people have to take to become who they want to be.”
She enrolled in Bergen through the NJ STARS Program, a state program that provides New Jersey’s highest achieving students with free tuition at their home county college. Being an NJ STARS student allowed Kotfisz to begin her college education without the fear of loan debt.
“I chose Bergen because it allowed me to have the opportunity to continue my education and explore what I wanted to do, with its countless leadership roles and extracurricular activities, to discover myself,” she said. “Allowing me to grow with affordability, along with assistance from NJ STARS, helps me avoid going into debt and gives me the best possible return on investment.”
She also said Bergen allows its students to change their paths when they have to. Coming into college, Kotfisz was a top high school pastry chef pursuing a career in the culinary arts. After enrolling at Bergen, she realized that she had an interest in mathematics, which led her to complete an associate’s degree in mathematics.
The NJ STARS Program also unlocked Kotfisz’s passion for community service. She swiftly joined the THRIVE Program, which is a program organized with NJ STARS and Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) students looking to give back to the local community and those in need. Kotfisz and her peers from the THRIVE Program recently collaborated with Bergen’s 4-H Club to plant flowers at Eva’s Village, a social services nonprofit organization in Paterson, New Jersey
Kotfisz continued to get involved on campus. She became a peer tutor in the Cerullo Learning Assistance Center, a student ambassador with the Office of Admissions, and an NJ STARS Ambassador. She also founded the accounting club and became the club’s secretary.
“My perspective at Bergen changed by showing how much you can accomplish in such a short period of time,” said Kotfisz. “There’s no set path – so you should be able to open that door, take opportunities that you didn’t ever imagine, and just go with the flow, because you never know what will be behind any of those doors.”
Kotfisz will transfer to Ramapo College to earn a bachelor’s degree in mathematics education to become a high school mathematics teacher.
Based in Paramus, Bergen Community College (www.bergen.edu), a public two-year coeducational college, enrolls more than 24,000 students at locations in Paramus, the Philip Ciarco Jr. Learning Center in Hackensack and Bergen Community College at the Meadowlands in Lyndhurst. The College offers associate degree, certificate and continuing education programs in a variety of fields. More students graduate from Bergen than any other community college in the state.
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