When Everyone Turned Aside, DACA Student Turned to Broward College
While awaiting a change to his undocumented immigration status, Christian Del Valle’s college plans remained in limbo. All that was given was the dark basement storage unit that he, his mother, and younger sister and brother returned to each night for sleep. Two weeks after graduating from high school, Christian Del Valle was out on the streets.
“That summer was the hardest,” said Del Valle, the proud product of a Broward College program that offers scholarships to motivated students who don’t know the meaning of quitting. “School would later become my escape. It was the only thing I had.”
Fighting for a Chance at the American Dream
Born in Guatemala, Del Valle was living in Florida with his mother and father by the time he was 11 months old. Under those circumstances, Del Valle could not gain U.S. citizenship in the same way his younger brother and sister did, as they were born on American soil. He was “an issue” that only time and DACA status could remedy.
In the meantime, Dell Valle cleaned houses and washed cars. He wanted to dofor his mother and siblings what his father, who abandoned the family years earlier, never did.
“If I couldn’t go to school, maybe my brother and sister could,” said Dell Valle.“I wanted them to succeed.”
DACA and Broward College Offer Hope
Their prospects got a little brighter when Del Valle was granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival, or DACA. This status not only protected him from being deported, but also gave him access to work permits,his first legal job at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, and a fighter’s chance at higher education.
Faced with the daunting reality that he could never afford the cost of tuition, a co-worker told him about the Get Real! program at Broward College, which provides financial assistance to students with challenging situations. Del Valle figured his plight was formidable enough.
“I had no other place to turn,” said Del Valle. “Even people I thought were family had pushed us aside. For the first time, someone cared.”
The Get Real! program provided the footing for Del Valle to launch his college ambitions and take advantage of all he ever wanted: a chance. And he hasn’t looked back since.
“I am grateful for the situation I endured,” said Del Valle, who graduates this spring (May 2019) with an associate degree. “If I live with regrets, I’m not living.”
Del Valle said Get Real! taught him to trust people and ask for help, and his life has gotten better, not easier. The family found a place to live in Cypress Creek, and he and his siblings continue to work and go to school. At times, Del Valle is both mentally and physically drained, but he persists. He wants to be the first person in his family to graduate from college.
“I’ve had so many reasons to give up, but I didn’t,” he said. “If I can get through homelessness, I can get through anything.”
In the future, Del Valle plans to continue his education, earning a bachelor’s and master’s degree in social work. He wants to be the lifeboat for others to reach out to in the same way that Broward College rescued him.
You can find out more about scholarships and other Financial Aid programs at Broward College. To explore our more than 145 programs, visit www.broward.edu.
Through thick and thin – Mother and daughter work together towards completing their degrees
Nothing is impossible when a mother and daughter set a goal and join forces to achieve it. For Sofin and Sawdah Asim, they knew that if they wanted to get their college degrees, they had to work together to get to the finish line.
For the past two years, this power duo has overcome all the obstacles on their path towards completing their degrees at Broward College and this spring; they will be graduating. 19-year old Sawdah will be walking the stage on May 7 to collect her Associate of Science Degree in Computer Science and mom, 45-year old Sofin will be doing the candlelight ceremony for the Nursing program on May 8.
Overcoming personal challenges
Three years ago, the two moved to the United States from the United Kingdom after Sofin’s mom, Sawdah’s grandmother, fell ill and needed someone to take care of her.
They enrolled at Broward College just a few months after, and while they knew it would be demanding, they didn’t know how hard it would be to balance everything. “Numerous times we felt like just giving up. Taking care of my mother on top of all the school work, the financial stress, and more, we felt overwhelmed,” explains Sofin.
However, as they say, teamwork makes the dream work. Over the next two years, they relied on each other for support and encouragement. They would try to have their class schedules match times and campus location. But, more often than not, it just wasn’t possible. Sometimes, after taking care of grandma in the morning, the pair would spend 10-12 hours at school, where Sawdah would have to wait hours for a ride home,while Sofin completed her clinical.
The Journey at Broward College
“There were no doubts when choosing Broward College. We had to go to the same college so we could share the car. Since I knew the Nursing program was well-recognized and that the College had a great overall academic record, I knew that for Sawdah it was a great choice as well,” says Sofin.
Sawdah agreed. “I am happy I attended Broward College because the professors are truly dedicated and committed to watching you succeed.”
While the Nursing program demanded full focus from Sofin, Sawdah started to join different student clubs on Campus. She became a member of the Honors Student Committee, taking on the role of Secretary since Oct. 2017. She was also a member of Phi Theta Kappa and the Muslim Student Association.
She also took advantage of the study abroad opportunities. She applied to the scholarship and went to Japan for a business course. “Japan was a fantastic experience, and it reminded me so much of the U.K. It also allowed me to practice my Japanese,” says Sawdah, who also speaks German, French, some Spanish, and is currently learning Korean.
Reaching the Finish Line
Now that the end to their educational career is near, both mother and daughter are grateful that they didn’t give up.
“Despite all the challenges, I am proud of what we did. We are graduating college and education is worth all the obstacles. If I had to do it all over again, with the same challenges and obstacles, I definitely would,” says Sawdah.
“Now that I’m almost done, I think all that I went through was absolutely worth it. This is such a rewarding profession, and I can’t wait to be out there in the field helping others,” adds Sofin.
As graduation approaches, this duo has decided they would rather watch each other walk the stage than do it together. Sawdah will attend the commencement ceremony with her classmates and friends as Sofin cheers her on from the sidelines. Sawdah will attend the Nursing’s candlelight ceremony to support and celebrate her mother’s achievement.
“What we love the most about the College is that it is a welcoming place for everybody regardless of their age, religion, or race,” says Sawdah. “People should know that it is never late to pursue your dreams.”
Are you interested in a career in Computer Science or Nursing? You caln also visit www.broward.edu/academics for more information on the programs available.
Live and Learn: Scholarship Recipient on Mission to Transform Underserved Communities
After he had spent much of the morning unloading donated food and clothing to the orphanage in San Paulo, Lucas Araujo Ferreira was invited to a large gathering room to have lunch with the children, all of whom had already survived extreme violence, trauma and finally abandonment in their young lives.
As lunch was served, the children were ecstatic. Ferreira, himself just a high school teenager, was heartbroken. The measly handful of crackers and watered-down juice on the lunch menu had taken him back to a painful time growing up, when his mother struggled on her own to provide for him and his sister in northeast Brazil.
“I could understand,” said Ferreira, who considered himself on equal footing with the orphans until he took steps to immigrate to Florida where he could continue to pursue his career goals at Broward College. “It made me realize that people, even though they had very little, could still be happy.”
These days Ferreira has reason for joy. The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation awarded him a prestigious Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship that will provide him with up to $40,000 annually for a maximum of three years to complete his bachelor’s degree. And that, likely, will be at an elite university of his choosing, once he graduates from Broward College in May with an Associate of Science degree.
Hardships Begins at Birth
Ivy covered walls and campus bell towers will be a far cry from his family roots just an hour’s drive outside San Paulo, where his grandmother earned a paltry wage picking cotton and cutting sugarcane from fields that stretch for hundreds of miles. Ferreira’s own hardship tale began early in life. Living in a rural tenement building his mother and older sister shared with his grandparents and aunt, Ferreira learned not to shy away from hard work and challenges. At 13, he was admitted into a public high school in Brazil that would allow him to study computers applications and, at the same time, get a job to help his family financially. Not long after, his mother remarried and moved to Florida. Ferreira joined her a few years later after he finished school in Brazil and was able to obtain his green card. “I never thought I would leave Brazil,” he said. “But, wow, America was just like in the movies.”
Mission Work in Sri Lanka
Although he could barely keep a conversation in English, Ferreira immersed himself in both a new language and campus life at Broward College. He became president of the Honors Student Committee where he learned of more scholarship and transfer opportunities. He also got involved in student government, founded the international student club and joined a handful of organizations that provided him an avenue to assist disadvantaged children. Those volunteer efforts continued in Sri Lanka, where Ferreira, while on a study abroad assignment, volunteered at the Orphanage of Mother Theresa of Calcutta.
Upon his return to Broward College, he traveled to conferences with President Haile and gave presentations throughout Florida on behalf of the international student perspective. Ferreira hopes his experiences will encourage others to chase their own goals. He already knows his. Ferreira wants to apply computer science to transform communities and improve lives. “My American dream is not much different than my grandmother’s Brazilian dream,” he said. “It’s just that my dream is within reach.”
Are you looking for a lucrative career with immense opportunities and earnings potential? Then explore these degree options in computer science and information technology.
Respiratory Care Program Breathes Life into Career of 58-Year-Old BC Graduate
After a quarter-century of helping some of the largest companies in the United States avert crippling computer meltdowns, Robert Olsen saw the writing on the wall. As the high technology landscape shifted overseas and vintage programming language became more and more obsolete, many of the companies he had worked for reacted by replacing employees ages 40 and above with younger, less-experienced and lower-paid workers.
South Florida and Broward College provide a second chance
At 53-years-old, Olsen was not about ready to ride off into early retirement. He and his wife were willing to pack up the car and drive from their home in Connecticut to Davie, where he had learned of an opportunity in the health sciences that could breathe new life into his career.
Once Olsen decided to pick up roots, he knew the trail he would follow led to Florida. He just wasn’t quite sure where. His online research had revealed that respiratory therapists were in high demand, especially in Southeast Florida where there is a high concentration of seniors. When he learned that Broward College not only offered a variety health sciences program including respiratory care but was also ranked among the nation’s top community colleges, Olsen was sold. He soon moved from passing his prerequisite courses to enrolling in the respiratory care program.
“It was time to make a big decision,” said Olsen, who declared to his family and former coworkers that he was enrolling in a health sciences program at Broward College. “I didn’t want to fight for crumbs any longer in the shrinking mainframe software development industry with other displaced people.”
Up until now, as a mainframe programmer analyst, he knew plenty about platforms, software, hardware and the implantation of complex computer applications. Outside of some medical terminology he gained in the military, science was an entirely different field, one that he struggled with until he wound up dropping out after the second semester.
Finally….success!
Not ready to throw in the towel on his new career, Olsen waited a year before he applied to the program again. Since then, he has passed all courses in his path and is scheduled to graduate with an Associate of Science degree in May. In the meantime, he serves as a volunteer mentor to first-year classmates in the respiratory care program and tutors some nursing students on respiratory topics.
“Typically, I’ve been the oldest student in each of my classes,” said Olsen. “Graduating from Broward College will be bittersweet. I will miss being around the bright, young students who are extremely focused.”
“I find it tremendously rewarding to be in a hospital helping people who are running out of choices in life. To me, helping them is extremely satisfying,” said Olsen.
Olsen plans to continue his education toward a bachelor’s degree in health services administration. Once completed, he then hopes to return as a clinical intern instructor to Broward College, where he can give back to a program he said has given him so much.
“I never thought I would take this path or that I would enjoy healthcare this much. I feel this is because I’m helping people who really need help to stay alive. That’s more exciting than writing computer programs. And I have Broward College to thank for this new chapter in my life.”
Respiratory therapists work with advanced medical equipment to help patients who cannot breathe on their own. Learn how to earn an associate degree in this rewarding field.
The road from China to Broward College Graduation Filled with Grit for 45-Year-Old Mother
Whenever she went shopping, Lingling Qian subjected herself to frustrated looks from store clerks who sometimes could not understand a word she was speaking. Simple everyday chores seemed to be momentous undertakings. After an attempt to pay her water bill online failed, Qian reluctantly dialed the utility office phone number.
“The lady on the line couldn’t understand me,” said Qian, who was born in China, immigrated to Canada when she was 30 years old and settled in Fort Lauderdale after she married her husband, Tom, in 2006. “So, I tried to speak slowly, but I guess she either had an attitude or was short-tempered.”
When the woman abruptly hung up the phone, Qian broke down and cried the remainder of the day. Each time she wiped away a tear from her eyes, her predicament became a little clearer. She might never become self-sufficient in the United States, she reasoned, unless she learned English. With a little prodding from her husband, Qian enrolled in the English for Academic Purposes Program at Broward College.
Growing up in a small house outside Tiananmen Square, Qian thought she “looked weird” because of her lanky height. Her confidence dragged until her basketball coach in Beijing helped her to change her attitude. His impetus inspired her to think of a career in teaching, where she could help others who were struggling with issues of self-esteem like she once did.
Because programs for teaching the disabled were not offered in China, Qian studied sports psychology, earning her first associate degree. She then left for what she believed would be more opportunities in Canada, where she lived comfortably in a section of Vancouver where many residents spoke her native Mandarin Chinese.
Struggling to Fit in
Almost five years later, married and far from her comfort zone, she found herself again struggling to fit in in South Florida.
Qian learned that the acquisition of English could be much more difficult for immigrants, like herself, who come to the United States as adults. Facing an entirely new set of challenges at Broward College, Qian took shelter in the library, where she re-read paragraphs in English until sentences ran together. At home she found escape in soap operas, picking up a phrase or two of English while watching “Sex in the City.” Her grit and determination paid off when she earned an associate degree with honors in teacher education.
But as a requirement for entrance into the Teacher Education Program at Broward College, she would have to pass the General Knowledge Exam. Those plans were put on hold for two years when she had to tend to her young daughter, who almost lost her leg in an accident. By the time Qian was ready to return to Broward College in August 2015, she felt as if she were back at square one.
Passing the GKE had become more worrisome than she had ever imagined. After failing in her first attempt, Qian took the test again with the same discouraging results.
“I can’t remember how many times I cried,” said Qian, recounting the times she failed to pass the GKE. “I thought of quitting. I figured I’d just become a teacher’s assistant. I didn’t need this.”
Last Stumbling Block
To her credit, and the encouragement of her husband and instructors at Broward College, Qian didn’t give up. Instead, she studied harder, went to the library on weekends and exhausted all workshops and seminars that would help prepare her for the next GKE, the last stumbling block to fulfilling her dream to teach.
Qian’s decade-long journey toward a career independence – a tribute to her dedication and new-found confidence – culminated when she passed the exam.
“My husband is relieved, he won’t have to hear me cry anymore!” joked Qian, with a beaming smile
She will graduate in May with a Bachelor of Science in Education. A decade later and 45 years-young, she will be teaching Mandarin Chinese in the Pembroke Pines public schools’ system and, in her off time, shopping for her family with faith in herself.
Are you looking for a career in which you can inspire and help others? Learn about how you can gain the qualifications and training at Broward College to effective teach and impact learning in the community.
From Sweden to Broward College, International Student is Aims High on the Court and in the Classroom
Despite collapsing to the floor during basketball practice this season with what doctors later described as a heart irregularity, Pernilla Sorenson didn’t skip a beat. She continues to live, eat and breathe basketball, much to the delight of her teammates, coaches, and family back home in her native Sweden.
Since arriving in Florida from Sweden to attend Broward College two years ago, Sorenson has been a standout on the basketball court. Her athletic prowess may not have come to light had doctors not found that Sorenson suffered from a genetic condition that required, of all things, additional physical activity to prevent her blood pressure from lowering to levels that would cause her to lose consciousness. In other words, the diagnosis was to play more basketball.
And she did. When she’s not at class or in the library, Sorenson can always be found in the gym shooting baskets. Because of her focus and work ethic, she was this year named to the All-Southern Conference second team for the second consecutive year. Last season for the Seahawks, she averaged 11 points per game and ranked nationally among the top 100 rebounders and top 50 three-point shooters.
Excellence on and off the court
But Sorenson doesn’t just draw raves on the court, her professors and the international admissions staff applaud her attentiveness and quality of work in the classroom as well. She is a finalist for the Florida scholar-athlete of the year and will graduate from Broward College in May with a 4.0 grade-point average. As a business major, Sorenson was named to the 2018 National Junior College Athletic Association Academic All-America team. She will continue her academic and basketball careers on scholarship in the fall at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.
“I’ve always had a goal to play basketball and at a high level,” said Sorenson, who shares a home 10 minutes from Broward College Judson A. Samuels South Campus with four other Swedish players on the Seahawks women’s basketball team. Each is a scholar-athlete in their own rights.
The unlikely quintet decided to attend Broward College together when they were recruited by women’s coach Brian McCormick who was impressed by their play on club teams in Sweden.
“I wanted a challenge,” said Sorenson. “I wanted to do something different. Broward College was a good way for me to get a degree and at the same time play basketball.”
Establishing a home away from home
The adjustment to college life abroad in the United States was made easier by the culture and language she shared with her Swedish teammates.
“My English has improved a lot,” said Sorenson, who is admittedly shy. “In the beginning, I was very quiet. I couldn’t be myself. But the people here have been nice.”
Sorenson said her teammates are inseparable. They bike together and go to the beach and mall, but with their focus always on school and basketball.
“Our team is very close,” said Sorenson, who misses traditional Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes, but has come to terms with lasagna and pasta with carbonara and Bolognese sauce. “We’re like family here.”
And, although she misses her family back home, she keeps in touch with her parents and sister and brother on FaceTime.
“Everything has worked out pretty well,” said Sorenson. “It’s been a goal of mine to graduate with a college degree. “It’s a nice feeling to know that I’ve accomplished that.”
Broward hosts F-1 and M-1 visa international students from nearly 150 different countries. Applying to Broward Col Broward as an international student is simple.