Two A-B Tech Students Nominated For USA Today Academic Team
Associate of Science student Ashley McRowan and Dental Hygiene student Darlene Saccuzzo were nominated by their instructors to enter the USA Today All USA College Academic Team. Their submitted essays in their entirety:
Darlene Saccuzzo
My interest in the dental field began at age 19 when employed by my family dentist as his assistant. It was a most rewarding job, but after 19 years of working with a variety of dentists, I was ready to move on to something else. I decided to expand my education and advance my career by attending Valencia Community College in Orlando, Florida. My ultimate goal was to be a licensed dental hygienist. I began my college experience by taking general education and dental hygiene prerequisites, then applied and was accepted into the competitive dental hygiene program. I was immensely proud of myself, since there was over 300 applicants and only 15 were chosen for the program.
Shortly before my first semester in dental hygiene, my father became ill. I continued with my classes, but after his death, it was necessary for me to leave and help my mother. We put our lives back together, and I reapplied to the program, being accepted a second time. I was able to complete three of the five semesters when tragedy struck again: this time in waves. My mother was diagnosed with cancer and needed my care until her death in 1991. The following January, my stepson was shot and killed. Six months after that tragedy, my husband was diagnosed with brain cancer. I cared for him, too, once again watching someone I cared deeply about pass from the world. Then I was diagnosed with cancer that same year, requiring two operations. All these events left me exhausted and emotionally drained. My dream of becoming a dental hygienist was pushed so far inside that I was convinced it was not meant to be.
Time, however, worked its magic and healed my troubled life. I moved from Florida to North Carolina. I found myself longing to return to school and to study dental hygiene again. I took a Dental Radiology course offered in the evening at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, and just by chance, ran into the chairperson of their Dental Hygiene program.
With her encouragement, I applied for the program and was accepted, sixteen years after my initial attempt. My dream was back in full force; I was determined. I took additional general education courses and volunteered as a dental assistant in the community for ninety hours, studying very hard. And once again, I was admitted to a selective dental hygiene program.
I have not yet had an opportunity to complete a community project, but in reality I am my project! I have decided never to miss a learning opportunity, to study every subject in depth, and to be the best dental hygiene student I can be. Not many people are given a third chance to realize their dream, and I am going to relish every moment. I love the dental hygiene field and find the program demanding, stressful, and sometimes exhausting, but I would not want to be anywhere else. When I finally graduate next spring, I will offer my skills, my knowledge, and myself to my community and treat my patients to the best of my ability. I am grateful for each day, learning something new to pass on to my patients, and I hope to be an inspiration to others in the field of dentistry as well as in A-B Tech's student body.
We can chart a course for our life's dreams, but sometimes fate has a different plan. Even though fate tried to derail my dream, I now feel that I will reach my goal!
Giving Back by Ashley McRowan
The most significant endeavor I have undertaken while attending Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College has been volunteering as the Director of Services for Lao American Community, Incorporated (ACI). I orchestrate and implement services for Laos-American immigrants to North Carolina to ease the assimilation because I have experienced the same wrenching changes as a Laotian immigrant.
I was born the fifth child of six children in Laos. My father worked for the US Agency for International Development (USAID). In 1974, my idyllic childhood was shattered when a fuel tank explosion killed my father, and the communists took over Laos. Because my late father worked for USAID, the communists targeted my family for persecution. Fearing the communists might find incontrovertible proof of American loyalties, my mother burned every document regarding my father's employment with USAID except his USAID identification card, which she hid under the sole of her shoe. We lived in fear.
The situation in Laos deteriorated rapidly. My oldest brother was sent to a concentration camp to be "re-educated." Hence, my mother arranged for me and the rest of my siblings to be smuggled separately out of Laos and sent to live with relatives in Thailand. I was sent to live with my grandfather in Nongkai, Thailand.
Although I had a good life in Thailand, I still ached for my family. I was overjoyed to learn of my mother's defection to the Napo Refugee Camp in Thailand. I joined my family there; however, living conditions in the camp were abysmal. It had no running water, very little food, and no medical attention. Human waste drained into small open ditches that became infested with large, brown maggots. Lacking clean water, my family and I took baths in the water buffaloes' waterhole. The camp distributed food once every three days. Starving, we ate grasses, leaves, and insects. Medical attention was virtually nonexistent, so I chewed on a tree's bark when I got seriously ill. My family often cooked, ate, and slept in a tiny ten-by-ten cell. Still, being reunited with my family was one of the happiest times of my life. I did not have much, but I had them; I had hope, and I prayed that someday my family and I would be rescued and whisked away to America.
After spending four years in the camp, an American official interviewed us to see if we were qualified to immigrate to the United States. Initially, he refused because he did not believe that our lives were in danger. Desperately, my mother took off her shoe, waved it wildly in front of the interviewer's face, and choking said, 'I can prove that we are fleeing from persecution." Then, she showed my father's USAID card. Within a year, we were on a plane to Faith, North Carolina, where my oldest brother had been living. In this little town, another chapter of my life began.
Knowing very little English, I was placed in the tenth grade in a local high school. Attending school was a challenge. I read the textbooks but could not comprehend; hence, I memorized the shapes of the words, then looked for similar shapes and marked them for answer on the tests. Before graduating, I married another Laotian immigrant, Phillip McRowan, who had defected in Ireland after finishing his medical training in Cuba. A year later, I took the GED test and passed. I have been blessed with two wonderful children, and my husband has a career that enables me to attend school. I have assimilated successfully into American cultures, traditions, and values, demonstrating that I am a living testimony of the American dream. Wanting to give something back for what others have given me, I help Laotian-American immigrants.
When people immigrate to another country, there is a sense of loss and bewilderment. Having experienced a similar ordeal, I enjoy providing comfort and reassurance to them. When immigrants arrive in North Carolina, I bring them foods: sweet rice, green papaya, and anchovies. When immigrants consume foods that they have been eating since their childhood, the foods create a sense of nostalgia and comfort. Additionally, I arrange for their transportation, register them for English as a second language classes, help them search for employment, and provide medical and legal interpretation services. Thus, I aid the immigrants to integrate peacefully and successfully into their new American home. The sorrows and joys that we face every day shape and refine us as individuals. I am no exception to this rule; my life's experiences shaped me into who I am. With these experiences, I hope to be a role model for my children and for new immigrants.