“I was living with my grandmother in Kenya before moving here to be with my parents. I was 12 and in sixth grade. It was so difficult for me to communicate with teachers and students. I didn’t speak English very well, and nobody knew my language, Swahili. For the most part, I felt all alone.

“I was the kid who sat in the bleachers while everyone else was playing their sports, because I couldn’t communicate with them. I was shy and nervous in class. My teachers were trying to get me to talk and socialize. They encouraged me to answer at least one question before class ended. It was hard. I never wanted to go to class because I knew they were going to ask me something, and I had to say something.

“So I began to read a lot of books, and I watched a lot of TV. I pushed myself to become more comfortable with English. I felt that if I wasn’t able to share my opinions with others, then they wouldn’t hear me. They wouldn’t know how I felt about things. Whenever we would have discussions in class, I tried to participate as much as I could. And as time went on, I became more confident.

“In Kenya, education isn’t accessible to everyone. So it’s more difficult for some people to get jobs and provide for their families. Coming here, I realize that I have more opportunities. And I have to take advantage of them to create a good life for myself. At the same time, I will not forget my family, my history, my customs, my traditions. It’s important to me. It’s a big part of who I am.”

— Sylvia Reema

The post Kenya native appreciates education opportunities appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“I struggled with depression in high school. I was bullied. I was having problems with my family. It was all really weighing me down. So my counselor referred me to this website where I could talk to people. It’s this one-on-one thing where you type in the topic you want to talk about and it matches you with people dealing with similar issues. I did it a couple times over a few weeks, and I began meeting some really good people. Then we decided to get off the website and continue communicating on our own. Through that, I developed some great friendships with people all over the world. I discovered that it’s easy to talk to someone overseas because they have no connection with the people around you. So talking with them about your problems, you don’t have to worry that it’s going to come back to bite you later.

“One of my friends lives in Portsmouth, England. Another lives in Australia. I have a friend who’s a soldier from Canada, and he’s in Israel right now. Then I have another friend from England who’s in France right now. We talk on Skype all the time. Sometimes we send each other packages. We’re all different ages, but I can honestly say that I feel close to these people.

“The whole experience has really opened my eyes. We may seem different, but in many ways we’re very much the same. They may live in another part of the world, but they deal with the same problems that we do.”

— Michaela Jones

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• She sets her sights on international business career

The post Overseas friends help her win depression battle appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“Our daughters are different. Our oldest one is very outgoing and determined. The younger one, not as much. We have to push her on some things. She’s slightly autistic, very minor. So we’re just trying to get her out of her shell.

“We didn’t learn about it until she was in high school. Actually, my husband and I were watching a documentary on these two boys when we kind of realized that sounds like her. Her biggest challenge is that she doesn’t know how to read people to communicate. We’re trying to encourage her. I run our junior church, so I’ve put her where she has to interact with the children. On Wednesday nights she helps me out by designing games for them to play. She’s doing well with that. And here at college, they’re trying to get her involved a little more with certain things. She’s also in Baytown Concert Band, which is nice, but she doesn’t really interact unless she knows someone.

“She wants to become a librarian. During the summer she helped out with the Dayton library, and she’s going to do that again next summer. She’s very good at what she does. She has OCD, so everything has to go a certain way. But when you give her a task, she does it fully. It may take her a little more time than others, but I think she’ll eventually be able to get a job. I think she’ll be a good librarian.”

— Tina Friesland

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“I learned American Sign Language in high school and was part of the Singing Hands group, where we performed songs in sign language. I loved the upbeat energy and the positivity of it. Being able to reach out to people who aren’t able to communicate like you and me is pretty cool.

“A few years ago when I was in a Kroger’s parking lot with my dad, a deaf man was selling pencils to help raise money for his family. A lot of people were ignoring him because they couldn’t understand him. When he approached us, I started signing to him. We ended up buying two or three pencils.

“When I work at jobs and a deaf person comes in, one of my favorite things is to sign with them and get to know them so that I can help them better. I’m pretty fluent, but not perfect. So if I start finger spelling something and mess up, they will show me the correct signs.

“I think it would be great if everyone took the time to learn the basics of sign language, along with the basics of other languages, too. So many people just know one way to communicate. It would be great if we all were able to communicate better with each other. I think it would help reduce some of the struggles people face. It would help us all understand each other a little bit better.”

— Chloe Anderson

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• Her big brother remains a lifelong protector

The post Sign language helps her connect with others appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“I’m going off to University of Texas in two weeks. I’m going to be studying psychology. I want to become a criminal prosecutor. I’ve always admired lawyers and the thought of finding justice.

“Last summer I was invited to a law and advocacy program at Yale, and I just loved it. We got to try a murder case. On the day of the trial, you were either a lawyer in the morning or a witness or the defendant in the afternoon. I got to work both sides. The case was set in a redneck kind of town. Apparently, a lady’s husband killed someone, and she was trying to defend him by saying he’s not that type of guy. But everyone around was saying that he’s really violent to even his own wife and kids. I got to play the wife. I did this little country accent and everything, and the judge gave me good points for that. It was a lot of fun.

“We also learned a lot about ourselves, about how to be more of a leader and to be more independent. I learned that I can actually communicate with people better than I thought I could. I always considered myself a shy person, but that experience changed me. I thank my mom so much for letting me go there. Now, this is the only thing I want to do.”

— Doris Umezulike

The post As a lawyer, she wants to play role in finding justice appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“He saw me in high school, but he didn’t go up to talk to me. A friend introduced us at a dance. The rest is history.”

“We’ve had some hard times through the years, just like anybody else. We just discuss the issues and move on. That’s the key factor right there. We have good communication, me and her. That’s why we’ve lasted so long. We understand each other.”

How did that develop?
“He had to learn it.”

“Yeah, I was very stubborn. I didn’t want to be home. I was pretty young back then, and I was used to going out, getting drunk, being with my friends. I wanted to keep on partying. But then I was like, no, I have a family now. I’ve got to settle down.

“We got married when she was 17 and I was 18. I had dropped out of school. We had a big family and my dad was sick. So back then, you had to go to work. We worked the fields. We were farm workers. But I went back and finished school. I got a job at a chemical plant in Deer Park, and I stayed there for 30 years. They wanted me to get a GED, so I did that. Then I went and got my EMT. I went to firefighter school and learned the safety part of construction. That’s what I’m doing now, safety for a contractor.”

“He’s come a long way from being a farm worker. I’m very proud of him.”

— Yolanda and Jesse Montez Sr.

Related:

• In her family, ‘woman’s place is at home’

The post Communication key for marriage that lasts appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“Coming from Brownsville and moving up here, we would run into accidents all the time and just feel helpless not being able to do anything. So I was like, I’ve got to learn some of that. I’ve got to learn how to help people. That’s where it started.

“I’ve been a firefighter now for 20 years and I’ve been doing EMS for 11 years. There are so many stories. One thing I can tell you is that as a first responder you never forget your very first patients, especially the hard ones. Those are the ones where you remember every detail of what happened. If you have somebody in need and you do everything you’ve trained for, and you’re still not able to help that person survive, it’s pretty devastating. That’s where a lot of medics and firefighters kind of stop and choose a different career.

“Communication is the key. Just talk with somebody. Don’t keep it in. I have a lot of medics that I train now. I always tell them, look, whenever you get to that point, come talk to me because that’s the hump that you have to go over. If you make it over that and you understand that you can’t blame yourself, you did everything that you could, you did everything right, then you’ll be able to help the next person. No doubt about it, it can take a huge toll on you. But if you get stuck in that place, you won’t be able to be there for that next person who needs you.”

— Ralph Errisuriz

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“I wouldn’t say writing comes easy for me. I’m not a natural writer. But I do think I know what quality writing looks like. So I can apply that to my own writing and to help others.

“Through peer tutoring, I work with students through the whole process of writing a paper or an assignment for class. Any kind of writing really, from science to humanities to English or sometimes even resumes. I do get paid for it, but it’s also fulfilling for me to be able to help other people.

“At the same time, it’s taught me a lot about writing that maybe I didn’t recognize before. I kind of did intuitively, but didn’t understand why. It’s allowed me to better explain those concepts to other people, so they’ll understand why the concepts exist and how to use them to their benefit.

“Regardless of what major you’re going for, to be able to communicate effectively is really important. I’m glad that I’m able to help others with that.”

— Gonzalo Zepeda

The post Writing tips key to communicating effectively appeared first on The Baytown Project.

I met this young man on the Lee College campus, where we spent a few minutes discussing his passion: music. A member of his church and school choirs growing up, he plans to major in music education.

“I always had a good music teacher show me the way. So I want to be able to help other students grow and reach their full potential. I think that music has a way to show emotion in other people. It’s not just words and sounds, it’s feeling.”

As we visited, I noticed that he seemed very thoughtful about each response to my questions.

“Well, I guess that’s one way to put it. I don’t think I’m really that good with words because I tend to stutter. It’s mild autism. My family and I just found out that I had the problem during my high school years. I felt uneasy when I first learned about it. Of course, I’m a music kind of person and I always excel at that. So whenever I sing, I don’t really think about it that much.”

What’s your biggest challenge?
“Communication with my peers, because I try to think about what I have to say and I sometimes worry that I don’t get the message across clearly.”

Any advice for others?
“There are people with my condition who aren’t really the social types, and I guess I would say to them to try to be open to other people because you don’t know who will be by your side. The best way to deal with life is through communication. So far, it’s worked pretty well for me.”

— David Rodriguez

The post Music is his favorite form of communication appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“I have an older child, so I noticed there was a difference in the progress between the two of them. Ryan talked at an earlier age, but Liam wasn’t talking at all. I started to wonder and research about when I should expect him to start talking. Is this me just comparing him to another child or is this, in general, not where he should be?

“After his 18-month checkup, I kept trying to talk myself out of seeking help. But about a month later, whenever he was throwing lots and lots of fits and having lots of behavioral issues because he wasn’t able to communicate with me, I couldn’t handle it anymore. It wasn’t good for him and it wasn’t good for me or anyone else in our family. We said, he needs to be able to communicate. That’s when I reached out for help.

“When we started he was saying maybe 10 words, and those were single words. He wouldn’t group anything together. That was last March. Today he’s saying sentences, and without being prompted. That’s a huge deal from a year ago.

“We went from like 20 meltdowns a day because of not being able to anticipate what his needs were, to him being able to say this is what I want in whatever way he can say it. Overall now he’s so much happier, and we’re happier, too.”

— Tracy McRee

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