Jefferson was born in Colombia and came to the United States 20 years ago. His beginnings in Charlotte were very hard. He didn’t speak English and he needed time to adapt to the Charlotte culture. He worked in whatever job he could find: Cooking or washing dishes at a restaurants and many other jobs. When […]

Sandra was born in Colombia. She worked in the banking industry to help support her college education until she graduated from the University of Bogota Jorge Tadeo Lozano, with a degree in Marketing and Advertising. She continued her banking career after college and with this job she moved to many South American countries until she […]

Wendy is a Christian servant leader originally from the Dominican Republic. At the age of nine, she met a group of employees of the local power company who were on hunger strike to get better working conditions. That experience impacted her so much that that day she decided to dedicate her life to serve the […]

Erik was born in Mexico City and was brought to the United States to live in Gastonia when he was eleven months old. Erik is a hardworking, resourceful and talented young man. He graduated from Ashbrook High School in 2013. From there he went to Cleveland Community College where he double majored in Automation Engineering […]

Genesis was born in Honduras, where she lived until the age of eight. Then with her family, she moved to Mexico, from there she moved to the US 4 years ago. At the beginning, she found it hard to understand what the teachers were saying and to adapt to the new system of learning. She […]

Gabriella was born in Charlotte and she identifies herself as Colombian-American. Her mom is from Colombia and her dad is from North Carolina. She attended the Magnet school Collinswood Language Academy, where for 9 years she experienced a dual immersion in English and Spanish. She then continued to South Mecklenburg High School from where she […]

Carolyn has served as a bilingual principal in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools for the past 10 years at three different schools. She is entering her second year leading Collinswood Language Academy, a nationally recognized, kindergarten through 8th grade, dual-language school with the mission of celebrating world cultures and embracing diversity through two languages. She is passionate about […]