28386: Hermantin(News)Haitian student's successes defy the odds (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Thu, Apr. 27, 2006


MIAMI DADE COLLEGE
Haitian student's successes defy the odds
The daughter of Haitian refugees who came ashore by boat has excelled in the 
classroom and in community service.

Special to The Miami Herald

Every Saturday and Sunday, you can hear Gurlaine Marc Jean's voice ringing out 
in Little Haiti's First Interdenominational Church choir. The 20-year-old Jean, 
who has been singing since she was 5, performs rousing praise and gospel music 
in a noticeably clear soprano.

The former choir member at William H. Turner Technical Arts High School, who is 
active in young adult, music and youth ministries at her church, is also a 
member of the Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus Crusade for Christ and Student 
Life's Spirit of Faith club. Her deep faith comes from knowing that life can be 
very hard and that it's important to make every day count.

The finance student is aware that 26 years ago, her parents beat the odds to 
cross the Florida straits on a raft to escape poverty in Haiti. Jean's father, 
Georges, 57, tells his children about how the raft made landfall at seven 
different locations before arriving in the U.S. He also tells them many lives 
were lost along the way.

Jean's mother, Margulna, also 57, arrived on a separate boat and later met 
Georges, with whom she had three children, all born in Miami. The couple 
applied for legal status upon arrival and they are now U.S. citizens.

The lilting cadence of Creole still permeates the Jean household. Margulna 
Jean, who works as the housekeeper for a nursing home, never completed basic 
schooling in Haiti and speaks minimal English. She recently enrolled in evening 
classes to improve her Creole reading and writing skills. Georges Jean, who 
works as a machinist, speaks some English. They consider education a necessary 
means to making a living wage.

But Gurlaine realized that education could do more -- it can give her the 
opportunity to do work that will make her happy. She speaks passionately about 
helping the Haitian community learn how to invest its money or obtain student 
and business loans.

''There's a great lack of financial advice in our community,'' she said.

Jean will receive an associate of arts in business administration and finance 
at the James L. Knight Center on Saturday, one of thousands of MDC students who 
will graduate during several commencement ceremonies spread throughout the day. 
The Miami resident already works part-time at a tax preparation firm and has a 
student assistant position in the New World School of the Arts Visual Arts 
Department at the Wolfson Campus. She hopes to pursue further studies and has 
been accepted at Howard University for the fall 2006 term.

''Gurlaine has surmounted a great challenge in pursuit of higher education,'' 
said Wolfson Campus president Rolando Montoya. ``An excellent student and 
community volunteer, she looks forward to the day when, having completed 
further studies, she can make a personal contribution to the prosperity and 
well-being of the Haitian community.''

Jean's dedication does not end with finance classes and her church choir. She 
also volunteers with MDC's VITA program as a volunteer tax preparer and has 
volunteered at Camillus House -- all the while keeping her grades way up.

Those grades earned her membership in the Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society and, 
along with community service, made it possible for her to finance her studies.

Jean won a Florida Bright Futures scholarship, a Miami Dade College Wolfson 
Campus GMC Grant, a Business Studies scholarship, a Miami Museum of Science 
scholarship and a Women in Mortgage Finance Scholarship.

She is quick to acknowledge the central role her mentors have played in her 
life.

''I would never have gotten this far without the help of Willie Lewis Charles 
in the Miami Museum of Science, Pearly Clark and Caroline Hilton at Turner Tech 
and my advisor Donald Perry at Miami Dade College,'' she said.

Shortly after 7 p.m. Saturday, Jean will justify her mentors' faith when she 
joins 1,362 other Wolfson Campus students at commencement exercises. A leader 
when it comes to grades, Jean is a minority in her graduating class. Only 9.5 
percent of graduating students are native Creole speakers; the majority -- 45.5 
percent -- claim Spanish as their native language.