“My family emigrated from Haiti when I was seven. None of us...

“My family emigrated from Haiti when I was seven. None of us spoke any
English. So I learned at a very early age that I would need education
to advocate for myself. My father worked as a landscaper and my mother
was a janitor. Whenever they visited my elementary school, they would
need a translator to speak to my teachers. Ms. Rogers, my first grade
teacher, told me that I would need to learn fast
so that I could advocate for my family. She gave me extra books to
bring home during the summer. I remember being a child, and arguing
about bills with cable and utility companies. I kept advocating for my
parents until my father passed away last year. Because he couldn’t
speak English, his doctors never took the time to fully explain his
cancer to him. So I had to get on the phone and draw the prognosis out
of his doctors. I had to tell my father he had stage four pancreatic
cancer, and I was the one who had to deal with the insurance companies.
I would not have been able to do that without my education.”