I was born in Brazil and came to the United States when I was 11. When I came, I didn't speak any English. I was taking four ESL classes in English, and 1 Math class. By the end of the first year, I went into a regular English class and from there on I was doing well at school. I was getting "A"s. I found that very encouraging. I was a student of the Quarter Honor Roll.
During my Senior year, I was enrolled in Health Occupation Classes and I was president of my Health Occupations Students of America Chapter. I was on the honor roll and received several awards (e.g., Kent Rotary Club, one signed by President Clinton for International Honor Society, and Who's Who Among American Junior College students). My brother and sisters were going to HCC and then I decided to come HCC. I started doing prerequisites for the Nursing Program.
While I was at HCC, I was a member of Phi Theta Kappa. In my second year, I was the Vice President of the Nursing class. We did a lot of volunteer work in the community. I graduated and got the Next Step scholarship to go to UW. I received a total of four different scholarships to pay for my schooling at HCC and they were from different nursing organizations from the state.
Now I am going to University of Washington and this my third quarter. My life is work and school. I just finished a critical care residency at Valley Medical Center. I am a nurse on the weekend and go to school during weekdays. My mother, my brother, and my sister were my key supporters and my HCC instructors. They always encouraged me to do more; they expected more. Sometimes when you expect more you get more.
Trying to escape hardships is not the answer . . . you have to face them and that is the only way they will go away. Face them head on . . .do the readings and take the tests. It is worth taking time out and doing other things than school and work, like volunteering. My Mother works for World Vision and they have a program where they recruit nurses to do volunteer work in South America, and that is something that I am interested in doing.