Hartnell College HEP

duados han alcanzado grandes logros educativos y en su empleo! Adelate encontrara las historias personales (ens us propias palabras) de algunos de nuestros graduados. Esperamos que este de acuerdo que su resistencia y determinacion sirven como inspiracion, pero mas importante, confirman que usted tambien lo puede hacer! I don’t want you because you don’t spend time with me, you don’t take me to school when its open house, and you don’t even have time to play with me!” exclaimed my 4-year-old daughter Emily with tears running through her cheeks. With my heart broken and tears in my eyes, I hugged my daughter and tried to explain to her why I didn’t have time to do all those things with her. That afternoon Emily and I were having dinner together because I woke up at three in the morning that day to go work at Ross, a department store, and after that I went straight to Hartnell College to attend my classes and I just had enough time to run home and eat with my daughter so I could go back to the college and work at the High School Equivalency Program (HEP) where I would be working until nine at night. She would spend more time under my mother’s care and my brother would be the one to take her and pick her up from school. My daughter, just like myself, was struggling to adjust to her new life in the United States. I was born in California, and was taken to live in Mexico when I was two years old. I returned with my mother and brother when I was 20, just to renew my U.S. passport, but due to the bad economy in Mexico, we all decided to start working in the lettuce fields. Three months later, I returned to see my daughter in Mexico, because I had left her with my husband and she was getting sick because I was not with her. Seeing the hope of a better future in this country, I decided to bring my husband and daughter to live in the United States with me. I brought my daughter over one year later and this is when she started resenting me. Emily was waiting for my explanation. I sat down with her and explained that life was tough in Mexico, because money was scarce; therefore, we sometimes struggled to have enough food to eat. She seemed to be remembering and continued crying. I asked her if she wanted her daddy to be with us and she said yes. I then told her that in order for her daddy to come live with us I would have to continue working very hard in my two jobs and just like her, I was going to study a lot and get good grades, so I could learn English and in a near future work towards a degree. I told her that I sometimes felt lonely, too, and that I also wanted to return to Mexico, but we were both going to work towards our dream of a better future. Emily smiled, wiped her tears and said to me, “My daddy is going to come soon and work hard, and when you finish school, we are going to have a big house, go on vacations together to Disneyland and you are finally going to have more time to play with me, right?” “Of course, sweetie,” I replied. Four years have passed, and my husband and daughter are by my side, as well as my mother and brother. I am now three years away from obtaining my bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from CSUMB and Hartnell College (CSIT in 3) and it seems like a dream. My daughter Emily is now my greatest motivator and she wants me to succeed. She knows that all our hard work will pay off one day. Having obtained my GED from HEP and having worked there, as well, I learned to value the tenacity of my community when granted an opportunity to better themselves. I would love to return to my community and continue helping the children by creating computer-based programs that will help them compete in tomorrow’s technology-driven careers, whether it’s through teaching and/or designing the programs themselves. One of my goals after graduating from the Computer Science and Information Technology program is to find a job in a big company such as; Google, Apple, Facebook and many more. To create a big impact, since I have many ideas that I want to share with them in order to improve lives in my communities. NANCY NUNO

Mi nombre es Nancy Nuño. Llegué a los Estados Unidos en el año 2007 como madre soltera con tres hijos adolescentes. Cuando llegue tuve que trabajar en el campo porque ese era el único trabajo que podía encontrar recién llegada de México. No tenía ninguna preparación académica y no sabía hablar inglés. En México mi educación académica solamente llego hasta la secundaria, después me case, tuve a mis hijos y yo pensaba que ya era tarde para regresar a los estudios y poder terminar una carrera. Estuve trabajando en diferentes trabajos temporales y para lo único que me alcanzaba era para poder pagar la renta y comida. Una tarde llegando al cuarto donde vivía con mis hijos después de una jornada larga de trabajo, me pregunté a mí misma, sí ese era el trabajo que quería tener para el resto de mi vida. En el 2008 empecé a tomar clases de inglés en la escuela de adultos, aunque a veces no podía asistir por el horario de trabajo. Al poco tiempo de asistir a la escuela de adultos fue una reclutadora del programa HEP (High School Equivalency Program/Programa de Equivalencia de Preparatoria), Julia Mena, a darnos información acerca del programa y me di cuenta de que el programa ayudaba a los trabajadores del campo a obtener su equivalencia de preparatoria, gratis. Entonces, me decidí a tomar clases para pasar los exámenes para obtener mi certificado del GED. Gracias a las clases gratis, los libros y el material necesario, en el año 2009 me gradué del programa HEP. Pensé que todo iba a parar ahí pero el consejero del programa HEP Carlos Chávez me ayudo para inscribirme en el Colegio Hartnell y así poder continuar con las clases de ESL (English as Second a Language/ inglés como segunda lengua) y después con las clases de BOT (Business Office Technology/ Tecnología de oficina de negocios). Desde entonces, seguí con la idea de seguirme preparando para obtener un trabajo mejor. Me gustaba la idea de algún día poder trabajar en una oficina y no tener que regresar a trabajar en el campo. Siento mucho respeto por los trabajadores del campo porque alguna vez fui parte de ellos. Mi formación académica sigue, hasta ahora he obtenido dos certificados: Information Processing (Procesamiento de Informacion) y Bookkeeping (Contabilidad) y en cuanto supe que en el programa HEP había una vacante para trabajar como GED Facilitator (Facilitador de GED), llene la aplicación, después me entrevistaron y ahora estoy trabajando ahí. Me parece un sueño lo que estoy viviendo, ya no tengo que trabajar más en el campo! Mi vida cambio gracias al programa HEP. Agradezco al programa HEP por brindarme la oportunidad de seguir estudiando y apoyarme en todo lo necesario para lograr mis metas. Learn more at http://www.hartnell.edu/hep-alumni-graduados-de-hep