Student Spotlight: Cecelia

Cecilia went to ninth grade in Mexico. That was it. When she arrived in the United States, English felt impossible, and the idea of earning a GED felt even further out of reach. “I never thought I would do it because it was hard,” she said. “English is hard, especially when you don’t have the opportunity to have education.”

It was her sister who finally pushed her. Cecilia kept telling her the same thing: she needed a better job, more pay, a new opportunity, but everywhere she went, they wanted a GED she didn’t have. Her sister’s response was simple. You never tried. You should try. So, she talked Cecilia into signing up for Project Graduate.

Even then, the doubt followed her. “Every time I went to the parking lot, I was just like, are you sure you want to do this?”

She started anyway. Her teacher, Tanisha, was unlike anyone she had encountered before. She called on Cecilia constantly. She put her at the board in front of the class to work through fractions. At first, Cecilia was convinced Tanisha didn’t like her. “Every time was the same over and over.” But Tanisha kept pushing, kept asking, kept believing something Cecilia couldn’t yet see in herself.

And then one day, standing at the board in front of everyone, Cecilia worked through a problem she had been certain she could never do. “That day that I finally did it, I was like, oh my gosh. I did that.”

She passed math. Then science. Social studies took two tries, but she passed. Language arts nearly broke her. As a single mother working ten-hour days before coming to class, there were moments she was ready to walk away entirely. “In my mind, I’m just like, I’m not gonna do it. This is so hard for me.” But her kids wouldn’t let her quit. And neither would the staff at The Literacy Alliance who kept pushing her forward.

“I don’t believe that I passed,” Cecilia said. “But I did.”

She came to The Literacy Alliance hoping for better opportunities and a better life for her family. What she found was a place that saw something in her before she could see it in herself. “Thank you for making me feel like I can do things.”