I Can Conquer

During my higher education journey, I have experienced many financial hardships, including not having a strong support system in my life. I lost my father to a brain attack stroke. After my father passed away, things went downhill for my family and I and we became homeless for 2 years. At the age of twelve I was removed from my biological mother and placed into the foster care system. I grew up not knowing who majority of my biological family was, so my support system has been weak, especially financial support systems. Much of what I have accomplished has been due to the support of Seattle Education Access and other academic programs such as the Accelerator YMCA. I do not know where I would be if it wasn’t for my education advocate, Jeff.

My Education Advocate helped to eliminate many financial barriers that I faced while achieving higher learning. My EA helped me with many different things such as paying for college applications, or registration holds that prevented me from registering for classes. My EA helped pay for my graduation cap/gown/tassel, and he also connected me to scholarships that Seattle Education Access provided. My Education Advocate also helped me gain many leadership skills which benefited me. For example, he hired me to work on the Student Advisory Board, which I participated in for 2 years. Also, he offered many opportunities to earn stipends by assisting in interview sessions with new Education Advocate/Board Member applicants. My Education Advocate has always motivated me to achieve and reach my highest potential. I would not have accelerated this far in my educational goals if I did not have my Education Advocate.

Having a master’s degree in Social Work is a big accomplishment for me. I am a first-generation college student. Many of my family members did not attend college. Having a master’s degree helps me feel more stable in my life, and it also reminds me that I can do anything I put my mind too. Having a master’s degree and accomplishing my educational goals has provided many opportunities for me and has strengthened my support system tremendously! If I can conquer foster care, homelessness, discrimination, and poverty; I know other individuals are capable as well.

What I Offer

I am a multiple-disabled high school dropout, and it was because of support from SEA that I was able to not only graduate from Shoreline Community College, but that I was able to remain enrolled at the University of Washington during a really difficult time in my life.

Students with psychiatric disabilities like myself have an 86% University dropout rate, despite having a significant amount to offer our communities. I am eternally grateful for all of the support I received from SEA and am forever indebted to this program as I genuinely would not be where I am today without it.

What I have been able to accomplish because of SEA:

I served two terms as Student Body President at Shoreline Community College, and served on a taskforce for the transfer of disability accommodations per SB 6466 in 2016. I served on this taskforce for two years as I transferred to the University of Washington. While at the University of Washington I worked for local startup, Nursing Evolutions, leading a project to review state law which would allow us to open our Pediatric Critical Care Facility. I then returned to disability advocacy, working as the Director of the ASUW Student Disability Commission. Here we did significant work (see link to Dennis Lang Award for more details: https://disabilitystudies.washington.edu/news/2019-05/dennis-lang-awards).

I served as Student Body President at Shoreline Community College for two years and was selected as commencement speaker in Spring of 2016.

I am graduating this Spring with a BA in Disability Studies, with Minors in Education, Learning and Society, & Diversity. I also have been providing a guest lecture in the UW College of Education, titled: Academic Disableism: Contemporary Issues in Segregation. This lecture teaches aspiring education professionals about the ways in which Special Education is being used to segregate communities of color, about the history of ascribing disability to marginalized communities, and how disabled students are being segregated into non-traditional programs.

A Second Family

Throughout my educational career I have overcome many personal challenges to get to where I am now. Growing up in Peru, I was raised with the understanding that my role as a woman was to become a wife and mother. I was never introduced to educational or career opportunities. This carried over into my life in the United States. For over 10 years, I embraced this role and raised my family. I would work odd jobs as a house cleaner, at fast-food restaurants, as a dish washer, and other menial labor jobs. As an immigrant without an American education, these were the only jobs available to me. In these positions, I faced harassment and was forced to deal with any treatment that I received, regardless of how inappropriate it was. I had no power and simply needed the jobs to pay my bills. As I moved from job to job, I always knew I wanted something more for myself, but I did not know where to begin.

Today, six years from the day I made the decision to enroll in school, I have completed the English for Speakers of Other Languages (EOSL) program, earned my general education degree (GED), graduated from Green River College with an Associate’s Degree in Business, and will graduate in a year from UW Tacoma with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business.

Seattle Education Access has been a big support for me throughout this journey. I met Jeff through the Master Achiever’s Center at Green River in 2013, and we have been working together ever since. SEA paid for my GED tests; supported me with financial aid applications; helped me decide on my major; connected me to tutoring support; provided scholarships to help me pay for classes, books, and supplies; and served as a sounding board when I needed to vent my frustrations.

Then, in 2015, I was able to enroll my daughter with SEA when she started at Green River. Alyson saw me struggling, but somehow finding a way to succeed, and this inspired her to pursue a degree. She also worked closely with Jeff at Seattle Education Access and was able to earn an Associate’s Degree and transfer to UW Tacoma this fall.

SEA has always been there whenever we needed support. Whether it was filling out paperwork, editing scholarship applications, or discussing personal struggles, we knew we had someone to turn to. They were like a second family to my daughter and me and provided guidance through a lot of difficult times.  I think I would have given up without the support provided through SEA, and I am so proud of where we are now and where we are headed.

Diamonique’s Big and Bold Dreams

I got pregnant when I was in my sophomore year of high school and never went back for my junior year. When I had my daughter in September of 2009, I did not have any support in figuring out how to navigate an educational path that suited my needs. I tried a high school completion program at a local college and I failed. I didn’t realize it then, but I didn’t have a support system or the resources I needed to be successful. I dropped out again. My family was unstable for years. My mom had been on and off abusing drugs and was not able to take care of me and my siblings properly.

No one really blinked in my direction when I dropped out of high school or failed at the high school completion program. I was kicked out of my family home and experienced homelessness for a short period of time which was a great source of stress for me that caused my educational endeavors to suffer more.

After stabilizing my living situation, I got connected with Seattle Education Access when I was 19. My Education Advocate, Anthon, helped me through determining school options that worked out best for me and my lifestyle. I decided to pursue a GED and finished all the tests within a month. Next, I got help getting enrolled at North Seattle College and began working on my Associate’s degree. I’ve been in school since then. SEA helped me start my educational path. I got support with tutoring to prepare for my GED, practice books, and really individualized help that focused on my needs. SEA helped me to actualize my educational goals.

I have experienced feeling like I do not belong in institutions of higher learning throughout this entire journey. I have had to learn to make space for myself and people who identify similarly to me (black, woman, first-generation college student, low-income, and parent). I have felt insignificant and not as smart compared to my peers at times.

I really don’t think I would have made it this far with my education if I wasn’t given the tools to advocate for myself, make important connections, and get the support I needed to become successful in my education by my own definition. SEA helped me gain confidence and realize that pursuing education takes more than just being smart or intelligent. It’s difficult to get through higher education alone and no one who needs extra support should have to. Almost 7 years later, I have an A.A., a B.A. in psychology, and I am now in my second year of a PhD program in Quantitative Methods in Education through the Educational Psychology department at University of Minnesota.

My daughter is a perpetual source of inspiration to me. I think my interest in education and learning has sparked something beautiful in her. I am seriously always surprised by her and motivated to keep learning so that she can see someone who has taken a path less traveled (corny, I know). She talks about going to grad school, being a mathematician or an engineer.  I think it’s showing her that she can have dreams that are big, bold, and  difficult, and still reach them. 

Diamonique, pHD candidate at the University of Minnesota

My name on the silver screen!

My name is Jojo. My pronouns are they/them, I am 18 years old, and I live in Federal Way, Washington. I live with my mother, father, and younger brother; who is 7 years old. I love him with my whole heart. My motivation to work hard comes from giving him a good role model.

School has always been a word that made me fall into despair; the place that made me break down in tears when I would step into the shower at night after 4+ hours of homework. It wasn’t always like this. September 2005 you would have seen a happy small child, shyly hiding beside their mother as they stood in line with other small colorful children, tugging on the straps of their pink Barbie backpack that was much too big. Kindergarten was the glimpse into what was to come in my school life; within the first month I began getting bullied by a much older student, 4th or 5th grade, constantly being shoved and screamed at by this person made me quickly hate waking up in the morning, they also made me hate my favourite denim Minnie Mouse bucket hat, which I had worn everyday it was possible. And although I would later get pushed off the monkey bars and have my eyebrow split, and I would get in trouble for biting a student that had me in a choke hold. Kindergarten was the ‘easy’ part.

When elementary school time was up I went to Highline CHOICE Academy, a school I was so looking forward to going to; I had a few close acquaintances from elementary attending as well, it looked to be as if everything would be okay.

CHOICE Academy is known for preparing you for your future education and career, it’s also known for the good socialization between all it’s students. When I started going to CHOICE in 2012, my 7th grade class had a little under 25 students, everyone kind of knew each other. Also since the school as a whole was fairly cramped you would often see the 7th graders chatting with the 11th graders. I will admit, middle school at CHOICE wasn’t that bad, I remember a few moments being genuinely fun, and I am thankful for those. I was always a good student, I enjoyed learning, no matter how much I would complain to my mother about it, I loved, and still love, writing essays, reading, learning about history, and so much more; so it was easy to throw myself into my school work when I realized I didn’t have any friends, not really, I had people I would hang out with and joke around with, but that was it. When I came to the realization of this it kick-started my anxiety, but I wasn’t desperate to find someone, I was alright, or at least I tried to be; I thought I couldn’t do any better than the people I knew.

You often hear students saying, “This place is hell” or “I’d rather die than be here” and most of the time they are told as jokes; not for me. During my sophomore year we had to decide what we wanted to do the following year, either attend Puget Sound Skills Center (PSSC) or Running Start; I had chosen the multimedia course at PSSC. The first month at PSSC was pretty good; a new environment with new people who all had a common interest; this was also the time I came to the realization that I want to be a screenwriter. I wouldn’t even last 2 months at PSSC, because a student choked me one day to the point where I had to kick him away; I feared everyday after, but I didn’t dare say a word; I took it out on myself, I self-harmed more regularly to the point I wanted to take my own life. October 2015, I was sent to Fairfax Behavioral Health Hospital for a week and a day; I remember crying on my last day because I felt I wasn’t ready to leave, I had also made friends while I was in there. I didn’t go to school for 3 months, trying to figure out what came next, and in January 2016 I was sent to the Woodside Alternative Campus, and online learning center. I fell into my old routine there, threw myself into my work extra hard to try and distract my bad brain. I completed all my necessary credit requirements at the end of November 2017, I could have gotten my diploma then, but my mother had always dreamed of seeing me in every my cap and gown walking across a stage, so I didn’t take it, not yet. I spent the next 7 months interning at NAVOS Mental Health and Wellness Center, I would give presentations in the Highline School District and as well as students at the UW where I am able to share my experiences to teach others.

The learning center was one of my greatest support systems when I needed it most, I saw the teachers as real people, interested in every word they had to say. With the learning center I was able to connect with SEA, and have the privilege of meeting Taylor Wells. Wells is the type of woman you greatly benefit from just by standing in a room with her; with her I have mainly been working on scholarship applications and was able to get the “No Time To Sleep” scholarship from Alaska Airlines. With this I am hoping to attend the Seattle Film Institute after a year of community college.

School; the word that once threw me into despair has shaped me into the person I am today, and although my mental health is still exceptionally bad, I am able to say that I will attend Highline College in September, then (hopefully) Seattle Film Institute, to one day see my name up on the silver screen, with screenwriter/director beside it.

I never give up.

My name is Anitta and I am a full-time student at South Seattle College working to get my AAS degree in Culinary.

I work full-time at a seafood restaurant and own my own catering business. I am a passionate and dedicated hard worker that is not only into cooking, but is also passionate about striving for more in my life. I graduated Student of the Year, from Career Link High School in 2015 and made it into college.

I was married at a young age, but recently divorced this year. Going through my separation, only made me stronger and wiser as a person and a student, and helped me become the dedicated passionate cook that I am. I did not give up or stop going to school through my separation, I simply just pushed myself to do better and keep getting through school with the support and motivation of all my college professors on campus. Going through the process of divorce, my family unfortunately was not very supportive, but I had others to help get me through.

My family always said I will not make it in life, but being the young independent woman I’ve grown up to be, have learned to leave all the hate in the past and welcome them with open arms when they are ready to do so. I am proud of how far I’ve gotten in life today without them, and I stand proud before the eyes of my professors and SEA Education Advocate, who have stood by my side in the long run and have seen all the hard work and dedication I put into my career and person life goals.

South Seattle College has been life changing for me. I am the first to have graduated high school on time and also the first in my family to have attended college. I have been very active in multiple events on campus and off campus as well. I own my own catering business outside of work and school. I am very passionate about what I do and never give up, no matter what. My big life goal is to hopefully own my own Mexican restaurant soon after I graduate from college. Life has been a struggle for me, but everyday I must push myself to do better for me because in the end, it will all have been worth it. My daily quote I tell myself everyday is “make today so great, that tomorrow gets jealous!”

I hope my story inspires others. It takes self-motivation and to want to do better for yourself. If I’ve learned anything, is with struggles, come huge success! And also positive thoughts bring positive outcomes!

Proving My Worth

Education has always been important to me -- it is one of the main reasons why I decided to migrate to the United States. When I figured out what I wanted to do professionally, I decided to put all my energy into achieving that goal. My dream is to become a structural engineer so that I can design and build bridges. I knew school was going to be hard in terms of the workload, and expensive when it came to tuition. However, no one told me that in addition to these challenges, I was going to be faced with constantly proving my worth as a human being, that I would have to explain and defend my humanity to individuals and institutions, over and over.

I am a person who is undocumented. A person who, like many other people, has been forced to leave their hometown due to the lack of opportunity, with the hopes of creating a better life. Navigating the education system has been interesting to say the least. I started my education journey at a local community college, where I obtained my GED. There I also got a taste of what the “college experience” would look like for me. When I met up with an advisor to plan the path to reach my goal, I was told that as an undocumented person I had no right to go to college. This type of rejection was not new to me. Previously in my life, my immigration status had prevented me from professional growth. Nonetheless, I had to take the risk to be honest and open about my situation to avoid being pointed in the wrong direction.

Consequently, I decided to look into North Seattle College (NSC), where I found not only a vast amount of resources, but a community of knowledgeable people. Usually the responsibility of assisting minorities falls on a few people, making the assistance limited. At NSC, this was not different, yet I feel grateful for the small amount of people there who had done their homework. I am particularly thankful for the academic advisors. They proactively informed me of resources, such as financial aid, scholarships, counseling, as well as the benefits and risks that come in these processes.

For the most part, my time at NSC was pleasant. It definitely became more intense as the time to make preparations to transfer to a university approached. The process of applying to college is intricate on its own. It was new to me and especially overwhelming due to the barriers presented by my status. Additionally, while I was working on these applications, the political climate had started to intensify towards a more negative direction. Racist and hateful practices were starting to be normalized. All over, fear and uncertainty started to increase.

In my life, I have encountered and overcame difficult experiences. However, I had never experienced anxiety and stress in the way that I was experiencing it around this time. At this point, I was referred by a dear friend of mine to Seattle Education Access (SEA). At first, I was hesitant to contact SEA because I thought things would not be different, but I realized I had nothing to lose. I called SEA and met Penny Lipsou, an Education Advocate. Once again, I had to go to through the exhausting process of explaining my situation to a stranger with scarce hopes of finding actual help. However, here is where my college experience changed in a way I did not expect.

Penny is an amazing human being. She actively listened and let me know that she was there to help in any way I needed. To be honest, in the beginning I was skeptical of how much she wanted to help. This sense of doubt came from previous experiences where all I encountered were doors slammed in my face. Penny’s kindness, values, and hard work ethic, along with her resourcefulness and reliability, were a few elements that encouraged me to keep coming back to build trust with her. As we worked together more, I mentioned to Penny the importance of finding resources available to undocumented students in universities.

Penny went with me to visit university campuses. With her by my side, I felt supported going through this process, which I had greatly feared previously. The process of applying to college was extremely stressful. It seemed that on each application, I was essentially explaining the worthiness of my existence to institutions that have not been designed for undocumented students to succeed. In the process of working on these applications, I started experiencing intense self-doubt and high levels of anxiety. Thanks to Penny, I became aware of my mental health. She provided me with resources that are now allowing me to navigate and define what self-care looks like to me.

 Multiple times, I have mentioned the positive impact that the work Penny is doing through SEA has made in my life. I know I am the one doing the work, but I am only able to do the work because Penny has my back. Thanks to Penny’s support, I was able to complete my prerequisites and end my time at NSC with a 3.81 GPA. Currently, I am at Seattle University in the Civil Engineering program. My tuition has been fully covered by scholarships and grants. Penny has provided me with tools that have empowered me. These connections have increased my confidence and my level of comfort in being more open about my status.

 Times are still tough. Undocumented communities have become a target for the new administration. With the termination of DACA, there is a lot of uncertainty within our community. I have been focusing my efforts on continuing the work that other undocumented students have started at Seattle University. In order to support my community, I have started the Scarlet Group – a peer support network for undocumented students and allies at Seattle University.

 The priceless support that Penny and SEA have provided me has empowered me to work on my schoolwork to reach my goal of becoming an engineer. Furthermore, it has increased my motivation to help others in the future. I am grateful to have made that call to SEA and to have met Penny.