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Home / Media / ePiñata / March 2016

CREAR Kicks Off the Spring Semester

For many of our students, it takes a great deal of effort to re-enroll in college semester upon semester. Obstacles can range from financial to social or familial, making it important for us to touch base with our students at the beginning and end of each semester. Every week, they are achieving new heights on their path to graduation, and we want to celebrate their many accomplishments and their decision each semester to invest in their college education.

To help us celebrate our CREAR Futuros students, we always engage an experienced and diverse group of individuals to speak on the importance of peer-mentoring and the goal of stepping towards your life’s expectations. Unique to this kickoff was the participation of HF’s Director of Immigration and Civic Engagement, Jessica Orozco. Seizing the moment on this election year, we thought it was excellent timing to discuss the importance of voter registration and mobilizing for the earned right to vote. We were able to offer our students the opportunity to register to vote at this very event and challenged them to educate their peers on the topic and journey to the polls as a group.

Our afternoon agenda ended with the impactful testimony of our keynote speaker, Dr. Angela Maria Caba. Dr. Caba is the Medical Director at CITYMD’s Brooklyn site, a walk-in urgent care clinic that is transforming the level of convenience from which medical service is accessed by the public. Her personal story includes overcoming the tragedy of losing a twin sister to Polio, the trials of immigrating from the Dominican Republic, and being raised in the challenging public housing tenements of the Bronx. She struggled to learn English and didn’t always have straight A’s but eventually she found her passion in the medical field, rose to her full potential and finally became a doctor. Hers was a story that resonated profoundly with our students, and we were fortunate to have her with us.

We love taking the time to celebrate our students and their accomplishments. The evening concluded on a high note, raffling off a number of small and large prizes supported through our funding partnership with the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, and two round trip airline tickets supplied through our partnership with Delta Air Lines.