From Haiti to Medical School

On March 21, 2023, at around 5 p.m., my life completely changed.
I had applied to Berea College a few months earlier, and every day since then felt like a year as I waited for a decision. Then, on that evening in mid-March, I finally got an email about my application. My heart was pounding hard in my chest, and my fingers were fluttering as I clicked on it. Then I saw the word “congratulations,” and I had to check to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. In that one instant, I felt a whole new future open up for me.
I didn’t know it yet, but that brand-new future was a gift I’d been given by you and everyone else who supports Berea College.
I grew up in Haiti, in the city of Jérémie. My mother raised me and my six older siblings all by herself until she passed away when I was 9. After that, it was just the seven of us, and we had to take care of each other on our own. Out of all the things she taught us and the lessons she left behind, one of the most important was about the priceless value of education.
My mother always wanted me and my siblings to get as much schooling as we possibly could. Even though she only finished primary school herself, her dream is the reason that I and four of my siblings are first-generation college students. She always had a strong belief that the power of education could create a better future for her children, and she planted that hope deep in all our hearts.
Berea College is the reason that my mother’s dream for me came true. I first found Berea online, and as soon as I saw how it served only students of “great promise” and “limited financial resources,” I turned to my sister and I told her, “I think this college was perfectly made for me!”
The opportunities I found at Berea were life-changing, in ways I could never have even imagined. But the most important thing that Berea gave me was stability. Right around the time I finished high school, the president of Haiti was killed, and the situation became very dangerous. Thousands of families had to leave their homes in search of safety as gang violence got worse and worse. Eventually, there were kidnappings happening daily.
In the midst of all that danger and insecurity, Berea gave me a steady and solid foundation that I could depend on. The stability I found at Berea College is what made it possible for me to start building the life I’d dreamt of ever since I was a little girl. Without Berea, there’s no way that I’d be where I am today, a senior in college and preparing for medical school.

Berea gave me so much that it’s hard to put it all into words. When I talk to people about everything that Berea does for its students, they’re just shocked. When I tell my friends from other schools about how Berea funded both of my internships, or paid for me to attend a conference, or gave me a grant for professional clothing, it completely blows their minds that a place like this even exists.
What I find even more amazing is that the generosity of regular people like you and me is what keeps Berea going. That’s why being a Berea Patron is so important to me, donating a few dollars every month to help give future students these same opportunities. I’ve been a Patron ever since my very first semester, and I joined the Student Philanthropy Committee during my sophomore year. I feel so honored by the chance to pass on the gift that I was given so that others just like me can come to Berea too. Berea gave to me, and now I’m paying it forward.
As a child back home in Haiti, I always had very big dreams. But that’s all they were: just dreams. I never really thought that they could ever come true. It was only on that day in March when I got my acceptance to Berea that I started actually believing in my dreams. When Berea College opened its doors to me, every dream out of reach seemed suddenly within my grasp.
That’s why I’ve done my best to give back from the moment I arrived on campus. I know how it feels to have your dreams go from fantastical to possible in just one single moment, all because of Berea. I want every struggling dreamer all around the world to have the chance to feel that too. But that’s much more than I can do alone. Everyone who gives to Berea College helped change my life forever. You gave me the chance to dream a better future for myself and my whole family.

With gratitude and warmth,

Esterline '27
Jérémie, Haiti
Biology major, future physician