Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Marie-Christine Des Rosiers
Marie-Christine Des Rosiers grew up in a French-speaking household in Ontario, Canada, and earned Canadian bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music before moving to Chicago six years ago. Watching her mother’s experience with rehabilitation related to cancer and end-of-life care, Marie-Christine was inspired to change careers to become a physical therapy assistant. She felt warmly…
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Alvaro Mendieta
Alvaro Mendieta arrived to the United States from Ecuador eight years ago with limited English skills and big dreams. With his cousin’s encouragement, he enrolled in English as a Second Language classes at Truman College. He advanced through his courses and his English skills improved. When he was ready, Alvaro enrolled in the Gateway Scholars…
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Andres Gerena
Andres Gerena came to Wright College after graduating from Lane Tech High School and earning the Star Scholarship. He is a part of the college’s guaranteed admissions Engineering Pathways program. At Wright, Andres was involved with multiple organizations and became President of the National Society of Black Engineers—Wright College Chapter. He was a tutor in…
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Michael Nwaigbo
Michael Nwaigbo grew up in Nigeria and moved to Chicago as a teen. He decided to attend Kennedy-King College after graduating from Hyde Park Academy and earning the Star Scholarship. Once at Kennedy-King, he placed his focus on obtaining his Associate of Science degree, with the hopes of transferring to a four-year university and majoring…
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Kristen Medrano
Kristen Medrano came to Olive-Harvey College in August 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic had started. She was a stay-at-home mom with five children at the time and a prior general manager in the restaurant business. Kristen was looking for a career change that was more conducive to juggling her personal life, children, and career, so…
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Kam Tim Kwan
Kam Tim Kwan moved to Chicago from Hong Kong three years ago. His native language is Cantonese, so, in order to improve his English, he attended ESL courses at Harold Washington College for two semesters. Kam Tim says that his ESL courses gave him the confidence and motivation he needed to continue his education and…
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Florencia Laino
Being undocumented has always played a big role in who I am. But it’s also been my biggest challenge in pursuing higher education. At least that’s what I thought before. I came to Chicago from Uruguay when I was almost a year old and grew up sharing a one-bedroom apartment with my family in Albany…
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Takeshia Carter
Takeshia Carter has always loved cars. Growing up, she built model cars and walked around with small car parts in her pocket. But she wasn’t sure she would be able to make automotive collision repair her career. “For my whole life, they told me women don’t do that,” Takeshia said. Still, collision repair came naturally…
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Marvens Saint-Juste
When Harold Washington College student Marvens Saint-Juste was struggling to pay for his classes, he thought to himself, “there has to be a way [to take advantage of resources]—I just need to conduct the research.” The research was quicker than he originally imagined. In fact, just a few minutes later, Marvens found the application for…
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Jessica Ballenger
Jessica Ballenger was going through a very difficult time in her life when she found out she had been awarded the PepsiCo Foundation’s Uplift Scholarship. “It was an indicator that things were turning around for me—that I have a chance at being successful,” the Olive-Harvey College student recalled. As a working mom and student, the…
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