Letter From Former OCC student for Second Building

[Liz Maylin De Jesus Sanchez]

Dear Orange County Board of Commissioners, 

      My name is Liz Maylin De Jesus Sanchez. I am writing as a former student of the Career and College Promise who took the majority of her classes at the Durham Tech Orange County Campus to talk about the powerful impact this program had on me. I hope that this letter provides some insight to the importance of this program and how a second building would be an significant addition to the community.

  As a sophomore in high school, I was presented with the opportunity to take classes at Durham Tech Community College to complete college credits in order to help students with future career and college prospects. This option was comparable to the other programs offered by high school as it also allowed for us to complete an Associates Degree which we could then transfer to other colleges and universities in the North Carolina education system. This is an incredible opportunity which allows students to save money and time in their career prospects! 

  But this option was particularly valuable to me as a first generation low-income student who knew nothing about what college was or even if I could get there. Through this opportunity, I was able to expand my knowledge and create a strong foundation for my future through the Associates in Arts program of study. I was able to do very well in my classes at Durham Tech which showed I was ready for higher levels of thinking required at four-year universities. This also allowed me to raise my gpa to become a competitive student when applying universities and scholarships. I was able to get 2 full-ride scholarships to Wellesley College, a private four-year university located in Massachusetts.

     Having gone through this program, I know first hand that a second building would be an extremely valuable addition to the Orange County Campus. An issue that I ran into when completing my associates degree was that many of the classes I needed to take to to finish were only offered at the main campus. As a student at Cedar Ridge High School, the main campus was very far away. This meant that this opportunities were only opened to students who had the privilege of reliable transportation, a driver's license, insurance, and gas money. All of these are expenses that many students do not have or are not able to have. A second building would allow for the Orange County Campus to grow and provide more opportunities for students who really need it. 

Please consider the proposal to begin construction within the next year. 

Thank you for taking the time for reading this letter. 

Best regards, 

Liz Maylin De Jesus Sanchez

 

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Liz Maylin De Jesus Sanchez 

she/her/hers

Biological Sciences & Spanish

Wellesley ´24