I'm Lissette, a kind girl. I grew up with my grandmother and my uncle, my parents left me with them when I was 3 months old to give me a better future. I arrived here three years ago, looking for better opportunities. I met my parents for the first time here. I wasn’t so excited to meet them due to the fact that they did not raise me back in Ecuador. As time passed, my relationship with my parents became more strained. However strained the relationship with my parents is, now that I am here my goal is to learn English and improve my comfort level with it. I am taking advantage of many opportunities in the US and trying to grow. I’m proud of myself because I’ve overcome many obstacles, such as language, making friends, working on saving money, and studying. As a teenage mom, I decided to continue my education. My son is not a barrier in my life. On the contrary, he is my best support and motivation to improve myself and give him the good life and education he needs. My parents weren’t present in my infancy, and it was hard for me to reconnect with them in my adolescence. Now that I’m a mom, I would like to be present in my son’s life, while accessing higher education. I would like to be an example to my son and so many other teen mothers who find themselves in the same situation. I think education would be the best investment for my family going forward. To continue with my education I took an alternative path. I was two years in high school then I changed to GED classes to graduate quickly, one of the reasons was that I was pregnant and I was working to pay rent, bills and an immigration lawyer. I think I took a good decision because now I'm close to going to spring class at Westchester Community college. Graduating early favors me to take care of my newborn because he was born very premature 26 weeks now he is 8 months old. In five years I see myself graduating getting my major, fulfilling my goals, being a good mom and building an organization to help undocumented students. In the future, I want to build a foundation, and associate with people who would like to help more teenagers by giving information about the college, scholarships, immigration,... etc. It will help them because many times we do not have someone to guide us and we are afraid to make mistakes.