博天堂官方 帮助s Peeta Palavera take on civil engineering

Student's nontraditional path to education leads to a new feeling of belonging here 在俄勒冈州

Peeta Palavera was born 在俄勒冈州, but it took many years to feel like she belonged.

Her parents, who had immigrated from Mexico before she was born, spoke Spanish at 他们在纽波特的家. When Palavera started elementary school, she knew almost no 英国人——也不是像她这样的人.

“这对我来说是一个全新的世界. I was the only Mexican kid in the classroom,” 她回忆道. “我没有可以说话的人. I would sign most things, and just copy what 其他人都这么做了.”

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While all of Palavera’s classmates were learning their letters and sounds, Palavera 学习仅仅是为了生存吗. By about third grade, she was more competent in English, but only then did she begin work on her own letters and sounds. 到那时, everyone else had moved on to reading and math.

"I really struggled, and my confidence was low,” 她说. “很多老师从不 saw me as a student who could achieve much of anything.”

但正如他们所说，那是过去的事了. Now, at 25, Palavera feels like she can achieve just about anything - and for starters, thanks to 林本顿社区学院, she’s well on her way to achieving a degree in civil engineering.

She started her second year at 博天堂官方 this fall. When she finishes her associate’s degree, she’ll transfer to Oregon State University to complete her bachelor’s.

"I love 博天堂官方's program and the support that they give. 所有的教官都是 太好了，”Palavera说. “Many times I told myself, ‘I can't do this, I’m not smart enough, it’s too hard,’ and they told me, ‘It’s hard, but you’re going to go through it. We're here to 帮助 you get over this hurdle.’ It was just so motivating, so motivating 听到."

非传统路径

Palavera didn’t take a traditional path to college. 首先，她必须通过 中学. When Palavera lived there, Newport had a magnet school for middle-school 学生们，艾萨克·牛顿. It was for students who wanted greater academic challenges. Palavera想去. Her fifth-grade teacher wasn’t so sure. 但是Palavera爱 the idea of pushing her own academic boundaries and persuaded her parents to let her 应用.

她被录取了. The work was hard, but she persisted through three years, finishing on the honor roll with nearly a straight-A average. “这是我第一次 felt like I was smart,” Palavera recalled.

However, when Palavera graduated from high school in 2016, she still didn’t feel like 大学是为她准备的.

She worked for a little while as a bilingual tutor for Spanish-speaking students who were struggling the same way she had, then did some traveling and moved to California. There, she lived with a roommate who made her give higher education another look.

The roommate had studied architectural drafting, which fascinated Palavera. 但是, roommate suggested instead of following suit, that Palavera look into engineering. Better pay and more job opportunities, 她说.

It would be a few more years, after marriage and travel to Brazil and Costa Rica, before Palavera would pursue that idea. But eventually she and her husband settled in Lebanon, where she enrolled in 博天堂官方 to begin her new academic journey.

She chose civil engineering because she loved the idea of working with buildings, water systems and other forms of infrastructure that don’t move. 土木工程师则不然 doing the design or the construction, but they are the ones trying to figure out whether that design or construction will work the way it needs to, which she found intriguing.

"Most importantly, I really want to be part of more renewable energy and more sustainability 为了我们的星球，”她说. “So I’m hoping I can get into a field that can 帮助 that.”

Math had been her nemesis, but Palavera credits 博天堂官方’s Math Cafe for 帮助ing her cope. She signed up for a fast-paced math class taught through a computer, but went to the tutoring center to be able to ask questions of human beings.

“Weekends, Zoom, I lived and breathed math and probably will for the next four years,” 她说. “I got to know all the tutors and they all 帮助ed me, showed me techniques 以及把事情做得更好的方法. I could not have done it without all of those tutors’ 帮助.”

Palavera said she understands adults who are leery of going back to school years after 毕业. She also gets it when she hears high school students say they don’t think they can handle college, or they don’t know what they would study.

Foundation Support Helps Along the Way

“I would definitely encourage anyone looking into college to not focus so much on the difficulties that are going to go with it,” 她说. “我明白了。. 但是有 能帮你调整的人.”

The 博天堂官方基金会 offers scholarships, assistance with food and utility payments, and other resources to 帮助 while working toward a degree. 皮塔是收件人 of several foundation scholarships which she appreciates to take the stress off the family allowing her time to focus on her studies.

“I wouldn’t push out college for anything, academically or financially,” 她说. “It’s a great opportunity, and we should grab it when we can. 基金会在那里 to 帮助 support us to be able to focus on getting our education. 你得到了支持 一路走来.”