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What I Believe After a Long Journey
By
Leonor Morales
After a long and satisfying life, I believe more than
ever that, “It is not too late to learn new things”.
Today I’d
like to share that I known by the name of Leonor Rivera,
That I was born in a tiny country in Central America
that has the biggest heart, “El Salvador.”
That I have been living in The United States for the
past twenty Six years.
That I arrived here with my three children and my
husband at the time, to create a future for all of us.
That I had the privilege to be an elementary school
teacher for twenty five years in my country, and had the
change to influence many lives along the way.
When I arrived in The United States, I had two
priorities, to raise a family and make sure I’ll send
all my children to school to learn English and gain a
career to make a living for them.
I have worked very hard to help them achieve their goals
and dreams and as one by one had taken a
career and a family, I decided that this was my time; so
I decided I began to take care of myself and I enrolled
in ESL classes.
Learning English is difficult for me at my age compare
to my classmates.
I
consider myself very lucky because I found “Westbury
Language Center” this place has given me the opportunity
to learn English.
Every time
I thought it wasn’t easy, I always believe it was
possible.
I am very happy because my life has changed a lot, now I
have better communication skills and more of all I have
independence and more friends. I don’t have fears, I am
less nervous when I meet new people to talk to.
I believe that my English skills are skill not enough
and that I need to keep on learning.
To finalize I would like to say Thank you to my children
for supporting and believing in me, also I would like to
say thank you to Maria Isabel Martinez for this program
and the opportunity that you have given us.
Special Thanks to my teacher Wilmer Guerrero for all his
help, patience and support.
Thanks to all the teachers and all the classmates for
allowing me to be learning next to you and all the
respect you have given me.
Most of all I would like to say “Thank you God” for
given me a lot of internal power every day that I came
to class.
Please remember after this ceremony that “it is never
too late to learn new things”
Thank you
for taking the time to listen to me.
I will keep WLC in my heart
By Brenda Andrade
Welcome
to our graduation, let me introduce myself, my name is
Brenda Andrade, I am from El Salvador, I studied English
at WLC for more than two years, I began from the level
one to eight and I am really proud of being one of the
students who is graduating today, and I would like to
tell you about my life before, my experiences while and
after WLC.
Before I
came to USA I had know that I was going to find many
difficulties to get a job due to the fact that I didn’t
know to speak English, the language that is not only the
most important but also the official one to communicate
with those people who come from different countries and
cultures.
I arrived
to New York in 2005, by that time I was only sixteen
years old and I thought it wasn’t going to be a big deal
to find a job if I had become a hairdresser in my
country, but never the less things were not as easy as I
used to think. Even though I needed to learn how to
speak English I had to choose between working and
studying. Therefore, I looked forward to getting a job
at least something to do in order to make money to
afford to pay my expenses; I filled out many
applications but because of the language, I had to work
hard making less than minimum per hour.
One day at the place where I used to work
I met a customer whom I came in contact with and he told
me about WLC so I decided to come and check out if I
could fit in any class.
While I was studying, I took an interest
on improving my skills I my second language, I have to
recognize that working in addition to studying is not
easy, I was about to give up but I didn’t because I
wanted my dreams to come true and I fought it off, I
wanted to prove not only that a woman can be independent
but also that I could be the difference of all those
people who come and stay here per years and never learn
the language.
There at
WLC, I met nice and friendly people, students who spoke
English so perfect that I always wanted to keep up with
them.
Also, I
met professional and responsible teachers and I want to
thank mine for being strict so that forced me not be
absent, thank you for teaching English the way he does.
I ought to
say that I have gotten my first goal and this is just
the beginning of all I want to do, I remember coming to
a graduation party two years ago, I was sitting right
there and I though am I going to be able to stand
studying for two years more? Or by the time I get there,
I will have shown my abilities and my knowledge.
Since I
learned how to speak English, I have gotten many good
opportunities and I realized all the efforts I have been
doing for all these times is paying off.
Remember,
If you ever meet a person who doesn’t know how to speak
English you can help if you encourage or advice them to
go to school.
I will
keep WLC and all the people I met in my heart and I hope
God will give me more faith and strength to keep going
on.
HOY, 14 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2010
CELEBRAMOS la OCTAVa graduación del
Westbury languange center
Good morning everyone thank you for coming to our
graduation. Please allow me to tell you about the
process of learning English. I still remember how sad
it was everywhere I used to go, people were speaking
English. To talk to them was hard for me because I did
not speak English. One day I decided to go to school in
order to learn English. I still keep in mind the
hardest day in class, doing homework other and other
again.
Even though I knew that one day I will be standing right
here giving you a speech and telling you how my
experience was during class. I feel comfortable because
nobody is going to take advantage of me since I started
to study at WLC, it was amazing. I feel like I don't
have to depend on someone who speaks it.
I feel very satisfied that I have finished the 8Th
level at this school. I am from El Salvador; I finished
high school there in 1998. Two years after I came to the
United States I was trying to find better opportunities
for myself. Thanks God I found them. I have realized
many dreams while living here, for example:
I have helped my parents and siblings to improve their
lives. How? By helping to build their houses and by
helping them to continue their careers at the
university.
In WLC I have learned how to communicate with other
people. I learned how to make a resume and how to make a
paragraph and how to organize it correctly.
Good morning
everyone!!!
My name is
Vidal Bonilla. I am from El Salvador, when I was
studying English in El Salvador, I never pay attention
to my teacher; even thought that English was not
important in my life.
When I came to
The United States I had a lot of problems because the
language in this country is English.
I remember one
day when I finished work at night, a policemen stop me
and asked me “please give me your ID” and he was looking
at me and he said” Are you coming from Checkers? Because
I was wearing my uniform and I only said “yes”.
The policeman
said “Ok” go home.
Good morning
ladies and gentlemen as it was announced my name is
Ricardo Granados I am from El Salvador, I have been
studying at WLC for two year, well come our graduation
thanks for taking your valuable time attending our
significant event.
I would like to
share with you my experience at WLC, what has motivated
me to keep on studying and why this graduation has a
very important meaning for me; It has been a very good
experience to have the opportunity of studying at WLC,
where I had the opportunity of meeting not only a very
good group of professionals but also a very good group
of students whom I have shared with this wonderful
experience that I will never forget.
I am from El
Salvador. I came to United States in 2002, before I
came I was working as a welder but at that moment my job
was slow and the money was not good. Consequently I
decided to come here to look for a better opportunity,
but after six months here I felt very bad because I
thought about my daughter, well to be honest everyday I
think of my daughter.
She is eight
years old and her name is Katherine Elizabeth, it was
terrible for me because it is the first time that I left
her, I told my wife, you know what? I will return to El
Salvador because I feel bad also I talked with other
friends and I told them my situation about my daughter.
They gave me some good advice. They told me the money
you send, will give your daughter a better life.
After that I
thought better those things and I decided to stay here
and build a better future for my daughter and my
family.
Hello everyone
and welcome. My name is Maria Delgado and I am one of
the graduates.
Before I go on
with my speech I would like to talk a little about
myself, let me start by telling you about my life. I
have two beautiful little girls that I love so much, one
of them is named Samantha and the other is named
Gabriela, they are one of the reasons why I am here
today.
Being here is a
big success for me. Being able to understand the
English language and communicate with others is a
feeling I cannot describe. I came to The United States
in the year 2000 to look for a better future, to make my
life better and to have more
My name is Juan Ramirez I am 52 years old, I am from
Colombia. I have been married for a long time with my
lovable wife Martha; we have two sons, Sebastian and
Santiago.
Sebastian is our older son, he is 26 years old and lives
in NY, he graduated last December from Farmingdale
University, and he got married in July. Santiago is
our younger son, he lived in NY for eight years and
graduated in North Shore High school, and studied for a
year and half in Nassau Community college but he
went back to Colombia since 2009. Now he lives in
Medellin and he is married too.
Good morning my fellow students, teachers, friends and
family
I am so glad to be here with all of you celebrating this
important and special day. Allow me to tell you
something about me when I did not know how to speak
English, I have been in the United States since I was
eighteen years old, now I am twenty three. Two years
ago I decided to study English because I realized that
it was very important, especially when you love to live
here. I used to work in a Mexican restaurant in
Farmingdale as a waitress, but eventually I lost that
job, because the owner decided to sell it. I felt so
sad and I knew it would be difficult to get a new job.
I was living with my aunt Ana and I asked her to help me
to find a job, she was working at a printing factory and
she was able to find a job for me.
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