ESL Success Stories

As you know, the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office has requested success stories of ESL students who started out in a noncredit program and have reached their goals. Thanks to the great response to my email to the whole dept., we have so far identified the following students, both former and current, that fit the bill.

1. Marcela Gomez, who started out in non-credit ESL classes, later became our very own, first-ever full-time ESL Student Specialist, and is now getting her master's degree in counseling from USD.
2. Jose Luis Ramirez, who a product of Palomar College and is doing very well as our full-time Non-Credit Matriculation Assistant.
3. Claudia Covarrubias, who started out in our Fallbrook program and is currently working part-time driving a bus for Special ED of the Fallbrook Union School District and taking classes, according to a Program Assistant in Fallbrook.
4. Blanca Carrasco, who is about to enter an MA program in sociology.
5. Jorge Villalobos, who started out as a level-3 student and is now a full-time Program Assistant while pursing a college degree at CSUSM.
6. Juan Gonzalez, who started out in our level 5, became our ESL Student Specialist based in Escondido, and is our newest full-time Program Assistant in San Marcos.
7. Patricia Alvarado, who has been our only full-time Program Assistant in Escondido for a couple of years now.
8. Elena Ibarra, who now works full-time as an Information Services Network Assistant in the IS Dept. at Palomar.
9. Elio Reyes, who, while taking our ESL classes back in mid-1990s, applied to become a US citizen, took the test, passed, and was sworn in as a US Citizen. He finished his ESL classes, opened his own core drilling business, and is now making a very good living.
10. Roberto Martinez, who used to work in our dept. as a student employee and is now teaching math in a high school, according to his sister.
11. Rigoberto Reyes, who also used to work for us as a student employee.
12. Judith Marquez, who started out in our Academic ESL Program and is now working in the Foreign Languages Dept.'s Lab.
13. Martin Castaneda, who used to work part-time as our lab assistant for quite some time.
14. Leticia Feria, who finished the VESL Cosmetology Program and entered cosmetology school right away. After successfully passing her licensing exam on the first try, she started working at a shop in Escondido. Two years later, she bought the shop. She later hired one of our other VESL Cosmetology students, Rosa Navarro, who worked in Leticia’s shop for quite a while.
15. Guzman Acevedo, who started out as a non-credit student, progressed on to take VESL, and has been taking Academic ESL for the past three semesters. He is so self-motivated and motivating to other ESL students because unlike them, he is not only learning a new language, but he is also dealing with getting in and out of his wheelchair. He also owns a TV/VCR repair business in the area, according to one of his former teachers.
16. Miriam Synder, who is now one of our INEA teachers in Ramona.
17. Laura Ruiz, who is another one of our INEA teachers in Escondido.

Success stories of these and other students will be used in an advertising campaign by the Chancellor's Office to help educate the legislature and the public on the benefits of basic skills instruction including ESL. The power of such stories, emphasizing the need for special programs like ours to help guide immigrant students through the maze and encourage them to achieve their academic goals, is without equal.

Thus, if you have such students who are willing to share their stories, please send their names and stories to Anne Stadler by Friday, 3/21. If each one-page bio could come with a photo of the student, it would be just fantastic.

Thanks for any help you can lend this "success project."