Inspirational stories of student success

My name is Alim Syed. I am originally from Pakistan and I am a lawyer by education and a banker by profession. I joined the Collin County Adult Education Program about 2 years ago. I have prepared for my Naturalization Test in Ms.Salma's class and attended Ms.Heba's English classes. Both are hardworking teachers and knowledgeable as well. I have now successfully passed the Naturalization Test and have become a proud American citizen.

Thank you Collin County Adult Education for providing us with your valuable services.

Aisha Siddiqa

My name is Aisha Siddiqa. I am originally from Pakistan. I am a Math teacher by profession and have been living in the United States for the past 12 years.

I want to thank the Collin County AEL program for offering this great service to people like me, where I learned American English and Civics and History of the United States and have now passed my Citizenship Test.

I would like to give credit to my Citizenship teacher, Ms. Salma and my ESL teacher Ms. Heba who are very hardworking, dedicated and devoted to their students. They have helped me during the class and also any other time I have needed help.

asiddiqa

Thank you Collin County Adult Education for providing us with your valuable services.

Alim Syed

asyed

In early 2020, Thi Huong Duong Nguyen arrived from Vietnam. One of the first things she acquired was a nickname, Katie, that captured the hopefulness and zest she had for her new life in the United States.

Katie earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Hotel Management and had a successful career in Vietnam. This experience meant she knew it was important for her to learn English in order to be successful in the United States. Shortly after she settled in her home in McKinney with her husband and six year old son, Katie began searching for ways to improve her English. Luckily, Katie received a flyer about the CollinAEL ESL program. Once Katie realized the classes were free she immediately enrolled in ESL classes.

Unfortunately, just as Katie was building her momentum her education was temporarily interrupted due to the COVID related shelter-in place orders. Katie was disappointed because she was very excited both about learning English and her career pathway. Then, just when Katie was ready to give up hope, she was notified that online ESL classes were being offered. She was very apprehensive about the online classes because she was inexperienced with online learning, and was unfamiliar with the online platform being used. After receiving encouragement from her family she decided to give it a go.

Katie surprised herself because she was able to familiarize herself with the technology quickly. She wasn’t as nervous about her online class because she realized it was new not only to her, but also her classmates and instructor as well.

Katie remained determined to stay on her career pathway even if it meant she would have to continue online learning. She began attending four classes, four days a week and in her spare time studied independently. She continued to zoom along her career pathway. She started researching colleges and began the enrollment process. She tested out of her current ESL class and is going to continue her adult education classes to prepare her for college.

Thi Huong Duong "Katie"

katie

Norma Calvillo

My name is Norma Calvillo. I am originally from Mexico.

I have prepared for my Naturalization Test in Ms. Salma's class. She boosted my confidence and made me believe in myself. Her teaching skills were very effective.

By the grace of God, I passed my U.S. Citizen Test. I am grateful to have the Best Teacher, Ms. Umme Salma.

Thank you!

ncalvillo

In a normal introductory about an exemplified student, one would read about the background of the pupil; where they were from, what their fondest memories as a child were; their family dynamics, how they came to be where they are today, etc. Olga Miranda Segura has been my student since I started teaching in the adult ESL program in November of 2019 and she is certainly worthy of all of the aforementioned criteria and much more. However, due to language barriers, I have only begun to scratch the surface on what a wonderful person this woman is, which is exactly the reason she is receiving this honor.

Olga has shown that core values such as dedication, compassion, perseverance, and commitment know no certain language. Not only has she come to my classes like clockwork, but she always arrives early to ensure that she is prepared for the upcoming lesson.

Recently, when our class doubled in size, Olga continued to arrive early and helped organize the classroom environment in preparation for the arriving students. Olga displays an abundant amount of dedication, willingness to learn, and a classroom cooperation attitude that allows the entire class to thrive. In many ways she has become the rock and foundation of our classroom. She is always the first to arrive and the first whose face I seek to find when preparing for class. Despite our language barrier, she has become someone whom I truly admire and cannot wait to get to know more.

Never let a language barrier hinder your thoughts on the kindness of other human beings. Olga is a prime example of this factual statement and I’ve no doubt that she will continue to change lives, just as she has mine.

Olga Segura

osegura

My name is Samantha Osteen. I’m 39 years old and have been married for almost 17 yrs. I have 2 teenage boys, one who dropped out of school and one who will be a senior next school year. I dropped out of school when I was 16 yrs old and have been struggling since then, until 4 years ago when I started working with my husband as a land surveyor. I had left the company for 2 months to try something different, but that didn’t work out, so I went back to work with my husband. Though the money is okay and helps out a lot, I’m just not happy there. To my husband, it’s a career that he has done since he was a kid with his father and he loves everything about it, but to me, it’s just a job.

So one afternoon my husband and I were on our way home and were talking about how he knows I’m not happy and I should do something about it, so I did. For 3 months now I have been working really hard to get my GED, not only for myself but also for my son - to show him that an education is important in life to accomplish dreams and goals that you want for yourself now. Not only am I proud of myself, but my son is also, and now wants to get his GED. On top of all that I got accepted into a program at Ultimate Medical Academy to get my associate's degree as a Medical Office and Billing Specialist.

I would like to thank my GED teacher, Heather Summers, and my whole family for the love and support I received during all of this. I couldn’t have done without any of you... oh and the support of my classmates too.

Samantha Osteen

By the grace of God, I passed my US citizenship test.

I am grateful that Ms. Salma is my teacher. She is dedicated to her work and most importantly she is very hardworking and to be honest,

she makes everyone comfortable in class. The way she handled everything during the pandemic was amazing. I do not think anybody will fail the US naturalization test. God willing, everybody will pass.

I am truly grateful to have Ms. Salma as my teacher.

I love her from the bottom of my heart.

Thank you!

Zeenat Sayyada

sosteen

zsayyada