Maria Espinoza moved to California from Mexico two years ago mainly with the thought of wanting to be alongside her sister and mom being that she was not married nor had any kids.

Espinoza said that the biggest struggle she had to go through was to be away from her family.

“I didn’t want to be away from [my family] anymore so I decided to move to the United States.

“My mother and my sister have been the biggest and most inspiring people in my life especially because they moved to California before I did and I just couldn’t live so far away from them, ” she said.

“I also struggled with deciding if going back to school was going to be a good idea, ” Espinoza continued.

Undecided is where Espinoza stands in regards to choosing a major but says that when she first began school at Cerritos College, a year ago, she was taking make-up artistry classes.

Espinoza later decided that learning English was going to be something she needed to focus on.

“I work at a hamburger restaurant and I didn’t have an issue with only knowing Spanish but I began to think that if I ever wanted to do something even bigger in my career, I needed to learn English,” she said.

According to facethefactsusa.org, 10 percent of United States public school students struggle with the English language, while just one percent of their teachers are qualified to instruct them.

“I wish to be at a higher and better level when it has to do with speaking, reading and writing English because like I said, I know it is very important when wanting a higher position at a job.

“I also wish to better with my English because another dream I have is to work as a paralegal one day,” Espinoza said.

She mentioned that another one of her dreams is to one day be married and have her own family.

Language Arts tutor Elham Koukabi said she is very proud of how Espinoza is dedicated to learning.

“[Espinoza] is one of the most hardworking students I have ever had,” Koukabi said.

“She is a busy woman who works and studies at the same time, yet she has never missed any of her assignments in my class and she truly makes me feel proud,” Koukabi concluded.