In anticipation of the opening of Sharing the Miracle: Storytelling in our Immigrant City on December 14th, we will be highlighting a few stories from this exhibit. Within this space, we are celebrating the stories, struggles, successes, and life perspectives of twenty five people whose lives have been touched by immigration. These stories are of the neighbors, staff, volunteers, and family of the Education Alliance and the Manny Cantor Center.
Croilot
Originally I’m from, some people call it the Hispaniola, but I was born on the border of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. I’m still working on this, but apparently I have two birth certificates, one in the Dominican Republic and one in Haiti. I always said I’m the bridge between both worlds. I didn’t understand who I was on an identity level. I didn’t understand who I was as a teenager growing up, so I was a troubled teen.
Now I work here as an academic advisor program coordinator. I work under the Early Childhood and Head Start Program. Our college access program is under that program, and it’s focused on adult education. I oversee the ESOL, which is the new GED, and the college prep. This is a very rewarding program. The more work you put in, the more progress you see, and you see it face to face. Right now we work on getting parents in college, getting a lot of parents to see that there’s another option out there, a way to break the cycle of poverty. I’m coming from the hut to living in buildings.
I’m able to see what it is that exists within me. I’m able to see that people are able to communicate with each other, wherever you are from, you’re able to come together and focus on one mission, and the mission is to pretty much break us all from the cycle of poverty and to unite. I think what makes this neighborhood special is the fundamental idea of respect. The idea that we have respect for one another here, especially in this program, and understanding that we all have the same vision, but it’s just constructed in different ways based on the culture that you’re from.
