Educational Challenges: Growing Up In The Dominican Republic

There have been a few educational challenges that I had to overcome. Considering the fact that I was not born in this country puts me at a disadvantage from someone who was born here. English was not my 1st language, Spanish was, growing up in the Dominican Republic most of my life until the age of seven. Learning English was a challenge that I overcame with hard work and repetitive studying of words that are now primitive to me. Another educational challenge was not having a parental supervision while I was in home from school. My mother worked long hours, after school in which I had no help with homework assignments, studying, and school projects. In addition I became a father at the age of twenty during my first year of college. The lack of money while I was in my first few years of school persuaded me to work two jobs in order to pay for school while having parental commitment to my newborn.

A big educational obstacle I overcame was learning English. I arrived in the United States of America on February 7, 1993. A cold winter, tons of snow on the ground and it was all foreign to a young boy from Dominican …show more content…
I was not ready at the time mentally, physically and financial to take on such responsibility. Once my daughter Brianna was born, I had to work two jobs to pay for her essentials. Formula was expensive, along with clothing, and general newborn related expenses. My school work was not split four ways. My grades started to dwindle which led to my withdraw from my freshmen year in college. I did return to college the following year with extra help from family while I went to classes and studied. I truly admire parent-students, like myself they managed school work and being a parent. A great learning experience for me. I have come to appreciate the importance of education and overcoming these challenges made me a stronger person for