How I Have Gotten Here

Introduction

Like anyone’s life, Maria’s is not easy. She has school in the morning, work in the afternoon, some evenings to study, and weekends to catch up with reading and homework. When there is some time left, she sees her boyfriend. Maria is all alone in the US because she goes to school here. All of her family members live in Brazil, whom she sees at most once a year for a few days. On top of that, she has almost a handful of friends and a few acquaintances; hence she has barely any social support. Despite the fact that her life is a living nightmare, she is accomplishing her dream of studying abroad, and she is excited that soon it will be over.

Background with “Aha” Moment 

Maria was 20 years old when she decided to come to the USA for an exchange program. She had been going to college in her home country, Brazil, for about three years, but she decided that going abroad would be a nice break. Her exchange program lasted a year, and subsequently she decided to try to continue college here.

Maria enrolled at a community college called Montgomery College. There, she had to take one year of English as a second language, and restart college from scratch. Only three courses were transferred from her studies in Brazil. At the end it was all worth it because Maria got her associate’s degree with honors and a 3.74 GPA. At that point she thought the she could really do it!

Transferring to the George Washington University was easy because of her excellent grades and membership of the Phi Theta Kappa International Honors Society. She was even awarded a significant scholarship! Today, Maria is in her fourth semester at GW, with an even better GPA, and she cannot wait to graduate in December of 2009 and start working (to pay loans).

Professional Challenge

            Maria’s biggest professional challenge is how to get money for her education. So far, she has been able to go to school because she has tons of private loans, which she had to cosign with an American citizen. The challenge that lies ahead is that Maria does not know how she is going to pay for her last semester at GW because she does not know if she will be able to find a cosigner. Her previous cosigner might not be able or willing to help her one more time since she already owes an absurd amount of money. In short, Maria does not know if she will be able to even finish her last semester of college.

Personal Challenge

            As a good Brazilian, Maria has always believed that family comes first. It is extremely hard for her to be away from all of her family members and anyone that she ever knew. She hopes that her hard work and many sacrifices for a good education will pay off. It has been almost six years that Maria has been in America, and during this time she lost both grandfathers, whom she did not get the chance to say I love you and goodbye. In addition to that, she almost lost her brother because of drug abuse, her grandmother because of cardiovascular troubles, and her father for a series of chronic illnesses. Not being there for her family in difficult times has been very hard for Maria, but it is even harder for her to miss many special happy moments with them.

            At the end of her studies in America, Maria hopes to be able to go back to Brazil for a while to reconnect with her loved family. Additionally, Maria also hopes to get married soon, since she has been dating her boyfriend for over five years and cannot wait to build a home with him.