A formula for success
THINK
PAWSITIVE
COASTAL STORIES WITH MORE WAG
BY GRETCHEN AMMERMAN
T
hough some are more complicated
than others, every person in the US
has a story and I was grateful when
Joel Lorenzo agreed to tell me his. I met
him shortly after he’d been chosen to be the
keynote speaker for the 2018 graduating
class from Oregon Coast Community
College’s GED program.
Joel moved to the US from Guatemala
in 2008 to join a brother who lived here.
“Life was tough there for sure,” he said.
”But it was tough here too at fi rst because I
didn’t speak any English, so I signed up for
English as a Second Language classes at the
Oregon Coast Community College.”
By 2016, he had taken classes for long
enough and was speaking and writing
at a high enough level that a teacher
recommended that Joel try to take the
GED.
“I was intimidated,” he said. “I hadn’t
gone past the 5th grade at home so I had no
basic skills.”
He struggled in the classes and
considered dropping out, but the support he
got from college staff , like GED instructor
Megan Miller-Morgan, kept him from
doing so.
“She said she was touched by my story
and helped me with tutoring outside of
class,” Joel said. “We would meet at the
library to work and it helped me a lot,
but it actually felt like the whole college
supported me.”
Miller-Morgan remembers it a bit
diff erently.
“If Joel needed extra help I gave it to
him,” she said, “but I don’t remember
specifi cally tutoring him because it’s the
kind of thing we do for all of our students. I
can tell you that we were all impressed with
how hard he worked and how dedicated
he was. Many GED students fi nd English
diffi cult even if they are native speakers, so
I recognized the extra level of diffi culty he
would face. Th e GED is off ered in both
languages, but he wanted to do it in English
and I was confi dent and hopeful knowing
he was diligent and perseverant. Many of
our students have very diffi cult situations
and he was no diff erent but he was able
to structure his life so that he had stellar
attendance.”
Joel’s situation included raising one of
his two daughters on his own.
“I became a single parent because I care
for my daughters and try to do everything
I can to keep them safe from any bad
situation,” he said. “It was really hard
becoming a mother and father at the same
time, I’m not really sure how I did it and
school too.”
Working at a fi sh plant at the time, Joel
would share his dreams of going forward
with his education.
“My coworkers would say, ‘You’re
dreaming,’ and laugh at me,’” he said
“Luckily, the support I didn’t get from them,
I got at the college.”
By 2017, Joel was improving in his GED
classes enough that he tried some practice
tests and found he was in the passing range.
“Th e fi rst real test I took was for social
studies,” he said. “When we found out I had
passed it my teacher almost cried, which
made me almost cry.”
Buoyed by that success, he tried the
science test and passed that too. Next was
math, and though he didn’t pass the fi rst
time, math was his favorite subject, so he
felt confi dent trying again.
He passed.
And then he found his nemesis.
“I was starting to get in a rush to
graduate but couldn’t pass English so I
didn’t make it,” he said. “It was really hard
on my confi dence.”
Th en his instructors told him about a
program off ered at OCCC called CG100,
College and Success.
“Joel took advantage of a program
that all students that are taking the GED
program can use,” Miller-Morgan said. “It
helps students take full advantage of what
the college has to off er and helps set them
up for success.”
Th ough still feeling some insecurity, Joel
threw himself into the program and earned
an A.
“Th at opened doors for me and really
helped me with my confi dence,” he said. “So
I gave the GED another shot.”
When he fi nished, he was so nervous
about passing that he was afraid to check
his score. When he fi nally did, the fi rst
word he saw was “Congratulations.”
Joel is continuing to attend classes at the
OCCC, focusing on his favorite subject:
math.
“When I was in the GED classes I saw
how many students struggled with it,” he
said. “I would like to become a math tutor
and eventually maybe even a math teacher.
I really want to help other students in the
way I was helped; I want to pay back what I
was given.”
oregoncoastTODAY.com • facebook.com/oregoncoasttoday • January 10, 2020 • 5