/news-archive/tag/first-generation/ 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Fri, 11 May 2018 13:30:47 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 /news-archive/2018/05/11/enatha-ntirandekura-grad/ Fri, 11 May 2018 13:30:47 +0000 /news/?p=70523 ... Rwandan student fulfills dream of earning college degree]]> When Enatha Ntirandekura was a little girl growing up in Rwanda, she would have been happy to finish her high school education. The chance to go to college, and later graduate school, seemed wholly out of reach.聽 Ntirandekura was accepted to , a secondary school that empowers girls with the training and leadership skills they need to make a lasting impact on their world. After she scored high enough on her standardized science tests, she earned the Rwandan Government Presidential Scholarship, which allowed her to come to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. 鈥淚 never used to think about going to college,鈥� she said. 鈥淎fter high school back home, we normally take the standardized tests in science. If you do well enough, they give you a scholarship. I never thought I could score high enough to come here. I was the first person in my family to go to high school and college. For me, dreaming about college was never there. All of a sudden, I ended up landing the scholarship that I never expected and here I am.鈥� She will graduate May 12 with a Bachelor of Science in biology and a minor in psychology. Life in Rwanda, where she left behind her parents, nine siblings, and around 25 nieces and nephews, was quite different than living in the United States. 鈥淚 remember when I came here, I was so lost, and the accent was so different. It was so hard being away from my parents and siblings. In Rwanda, we walk three or four hours to get to the market. Everyone drives everywhere here. Sometimes, I just want to get out of the car and walk,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here is just so much of everything here. The language, the food, the way everyone is moving so fast 鈥� that is not what I was used to back home.鈥� She arrived in the U.S. in May 2014 and took three months of English-language classes at Hendrix College before starting at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock in the fall 2014 semester. “Thank you to Cicero鈥檚 family in Conway, who let me stay with them and their three beautiful kids as I was taking the English classes. And thank you to all the other American families and friends that have opened their homes to me during my stay in the USA,” she said. While at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock, Ntirandekura has served as president of the Rwandan Student Association and was a member of the Campus Garden Club. She received the 糖心Vlog传媒LRworks Perseverance Award and was on the Chancellor鈥檚 List and Dean鈥檚 List. As a part of 糖心Vlog传媒LRworks, she has worked in Student Affairs and Testing Services. 鈥淚 love 糖心Vlog传媒LRworks,鈥� Ntirandekura said. 鈥淚t has been a great experience. It gives you the opportunity to be exposed to professional study, and it gave me the courage to keep going. This is one of the most amazing experiences about this school.鈥� In the fall, Ntirandekura will begin the applied science Ph.D. program with an emphasis on applied biosciences at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock. She eventually wants to research genetic disorders after a personal health discovery. 鈥淟ast year, I kept getting sick,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 kept going to the doctor, and they would say nothing is wrong.鈥� Ntirandekura was later diagnosed with anemia and sickle cell trait, a relatively mild condition caused by the presence of a single gene for sickle cell anemia. 鈥淚鈥檓 from Rwanda, and most parents, when their children are born, they do not think to check for genetic disorders,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ecause I have sickle cell trait, I am a carrier, and my children are more likely to have sickle cell anemia. I want to help other people know what genetic diseases they are susceptible to.鈥� Ntirandekura had a chance to get some first-hand experience in the lab when she researched Alzheimer鈥檚 disease while doing a summer internship in 2016 at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. She is thankful to Dr. Scott Woolbright from the Department of Biology and her other professors for making her experience as an international student better. 鈥淏eing an international student in a new country is challenging, but having those professors who are willing to understand and keep pushing is amazing,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat relationship you develop with professors and coworkers is something I will always remember about this school. That is just so amazing.鈥� Ntirandekura鈥檚 journey to graduation has also been filmed by her high school. Ntirandekura is one of the first students from the Gashora Girls Academy to come to the United States and graduate from college. Since she arrived in the U.S., she has served as an advocate to help raise money for the Rwanda Girls Initiative, which runs the Gashora Girls Academy. Ntirandekura wants to give other girls from her country the same opportunity to get a college education. 鈥淚f I didn鈥檛 finish school, I would have just ended up working in the fields. My mom pushed me to finish school,鈥� Ntirandekura said. 鈥淭hrough the failures and challenges, we always have someone who pushes us. I think the person who pushed me the most is my mom. My mom was always willing to give me what she never had. My mom didn鈥檛 have much education. I will always attribute my success to my mom who has always worked to given me what she couldn鈥檛 have.鈥�]]> /news-archive/2017/12/15/tracy-shatwell-success-starts-dream/ Fri, 15 Dec 2017 21:02:19 +0000 /news/?p=68869 ... Tracy Shatwell: Success starts with a dream]]> Much has changed for the 30-year-old Air National Guard technical sergeant who graduates from University of Arkansas at Little Rock on Dec. 16 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a minor in Spanish. For her, commencement is more than getting a degree; it鈥檚 about realizing a dream. Tracy wasn鈥檛 a kid destined for college. In fact, the opposite was true. Her father finished 11th grade, and no one in her family had gone to college, so she didn鈥檛 see it as relevant. 鈥淚 was even offered a scholarship in high school, but since education was not emphasized, I didn鈥檛 take advantage of it,鈥� she said. Tracy and her twin sister, Stacy, and their older brother, Shawn, grew up in poverty in Valley Springs in Northwest Arkansas, raised by their father and grandmother. After Tracy finished high school, she lived with her Aunt Edie and became close friends with Edie鈥檚 daughters. 鈥淚 watched them, and I realized they were all dreamers,鈥� Tracy recalled. 鈥淎nd then I realized that I wasn鈥檛. I didn鈥檛 think beyond the right now. As I was growing up, the belief was that if you鈥檙e surviving, you鈥檙e good.鈥� That was the moment that changed her – the moment she realized she wanted her life to be about more than just survival. She enrolled at North Arkansas College in Harrison and used Pell Grant money to pay for college. After two years there, she joined the Air National Guard in 2011 and moved to Little Rock. She is currently part of the U.S. Air National Guard 123rd Intelligence Squadron out of Fort Smith and is a geospatial intelligence analyst. She goes to Fort Smith one weekend a month and two weeks during the year for training. 鈥淢y military service put a five-year gap in my journey, but eventually it allowed me to attend school full-time with no debt,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 was an average student in high school, so it was important to me to attend college full-time and get a thorough education.鈥� She worked at a counseling center for two years, so when she enrolled at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock, she knew that she wanted to study psychology in hopes of one day being a counselor. 鈥淚 only learned the term 鈥榝irst-generation鈥� when I got here,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 understand that I was at a potential disadvantage.鈥� Reflecting on her childhood, she understands how poverty impacted her family. 鈥淕rowing up, we just didn鈥檛 ask for things,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e were Angel Tree children.鈥� She and her siblings relied on the generosity of neighbors, teachers, school resource officers and church members for Christmas gifts and other things. Her fourth-grade teacher, Tami Rider Burcham, continued to give her Valentines, even after she had moved on from fourth grade. In ninth grade, art teacher Laurie Lawhon Jones showed up at her house with a prom dress. When she was a senior, her yearbook was purchased anonymously for her. 鈥淚 think about these moments,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here were so many people involved in our lives. Though time has passed, it still means so much to me.鈥� It may also be why Tracy feels drawn to helping others. After graduation, she plans to look for casework jobs. Next fall, she may begin the Master of Social Work in hopes of being a counselor. 鈥淚 want the experience of listening to and helping people find answers. I love that,鈥� she said. On Saturday, the former 鈥淐鈥� student graduates magna cum laude. She will have lots of people in the audience cheering her on: Her twin is traveling from Memphis. Her brother in Little Rock and her father, who lives in Harrison, will be present. Tami Rider Burcham, the fourth-grade teacher who is now assistant principal at Ida Burns Elementary in Conway, plans to be there as well as high school art teacher Laurie Lawhon Jones. 鈥淣umerous faculty and administration helped me along the way as I stumbled through decisions, paperwork, and how to find resources,鈥� Tracy said. 鈥淚 thank God for His guidance and the gifts He put in me to share with the world. I worked really hard on school. I set out to accomplish something important to me. I’m proud to be able to say that I’m proud of me!鈥漖]> /news-archive/2017/05/23/melissa-sample/ Tue, 23 May 2017 17:22:49 +0000 /news/?p=67233 ... Cambodian American student is first in her family to earn college degree]]> Her mother鈥檚 family fled from Cambodia through landmine-infested land to Thailand, where they later immigrated to the United States. Growing up in San Jose, California, Sample and her mother and younger brother never owned a home. They rented rooms from other families until Sample was 12. Eventually, her grandmother bought a home that housed three generations, but Sample still shared a room with her mother and brother. Sample graduated May 13, earning an associate鈥檚 degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. 鈥淚 am excited to graduate,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 am doing this for my mom, to make a better life for her, and to show my son that there is no reason not to go to college.鈥� Knowing that her family could not afford to pay for college, Sample joined the U.S. Navy at 18. She was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, aboard the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier. She worked as a damage controlman, similar to a firefighter. In 2010, she met her future husband, Aaron, who is also in the Navy. They started dating in January 2012, and their romance blossomed into marriage by October 2012. In 2014, Sample was honorably discharged from the Navy when she had her son, Maverick, who is now 3 years old. The couple decided to return to Aaron鈥檚 hometown of Benton, Arkansas. Living in Arkansas was quite an adjustment for Sample. The only people she knew in the state were her husband and his family. She started taking classes at the 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Benton Center, where she also worked as a computer lab assistant. “The Benton campus is an exciting place to gain knowledge, and the professors are helpful as well as interesting,” Sample said. “I met a classmate on this campus for which we became great friends, and she is like the sister I never had. Graduating with an associate degree is a step closer to securing a home of my very own.” Earning an associate degree is only one step toward her education plan. In the fall, Sample will begin taking classes on 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock鈥檚 main campus, majoring in communication sciences and disorders. After earning a bachelor鈥檚 degree, she plans to complete a doctorate in audiology. She wants to work at a Veterans Affairs office, so she can help veterans who experienced hearing loss because of active duty. Sample hopes to one day earn enough money to buy her own house, one where her mother can live with her. She wants to provide for her mother as her mother provided for her through the tough times. 聽 鈥淢y mom is a very strong person,鈥� Sample said. 鈥淪he had to work to support my younger brother and I as a single parent. I wanted to get an education so I could get a house. We never had a house of our own to call home. I want my mom to live with me, so that I could be there for her as she was for me.鈥� 聽]]>