My Educational Journey

Since an early age I have dreamed of getting a college education though no one in my family or extended family had done so. The part that was not clear was when, how, where, as well as what course of study to pursue, but time and life experience have shed some light on that matter.

I was born to a family that was very giving and community oriented. My grandparents raised 12 children, eight grandchildren and other children from the community whose parents could not afford to provide for them. I was among the eight grandchildren. Our home, which sat in a small valley surrounded by hills in the Dominican Republic, was the center of the community. Don Coro y Dona Casilda, as everyone addressed my grandparents, donated the land where the chapel was built. The one-room school which provided education up to third grade, the highest grade most of the people in the community acquired, if that, sat on our yard.

Besides raising a big family, my grandparents also provided medical attention to many. No, they had no medical training, but they
I went from school to school and in the process missed out on a good and solid education. I fell through the cracks. How I wished for a good student counselor or a teacher who would take interest in me, but they failed me. I was just one more in the middle of a decaying school of an impoverished and needy Hispanic community. At age 16, out of profound frustration and panic, I left school, took the GED and ventured into college that same year. Due to poor and uninformed choices as well as to uninvited cards that life played me, I did not accomplish my career goals and shame set in. Since then I have accomplished many things of which I am proud. I completed a three-year diploma program at a theology school, I took random courses here and there, I hiked the Appalachian Trail and I produced two wonderful children, but I never got the education I so much longed