Florence Aliardo wants to go home. She wants to graduate from college, and see her family again. But, most of all, she wants to return to Kenya to save children’s lives.
Aliardo, who immigrated to America from Kenya at the age of 17, is a student at USM. She is learning English and working to become a matriculated student through the English as a Second Language (ESL) program.
Because of this program, and the ESL scholarship fund, Aliardo said she’s achieving her goals one by one.
“Giving money to refugee students who come here with nothing is the only way to get them into classes,” said Barbara Trentacosta, coordinator of the ESL program.
Aliardo is one of these students.
She fled Sudan when she was 15 years old. She could not bear to see anymore killing. Fighting over religion, equal rights, and land was killing her family and friends. While eating lunch one afternoon, a bomb hit her neighbor’s house. She knew the five children and grandmother inside died in their home. So, she ran.
She left with her three young nieces and uncle. She was forced to leave behind her mother and father.
“I didn’t know where we were going. We were running. Everybody was looking for survival,” Aliardo said.
The ESL Department is essential in getting refugee students like Aliardo involved with USM. Currently, the program helps about 75 students offering fundamental English classes like grammar, vocabulary, writing and reading and preparatory classes for the English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) exam.
The department also awards ESL scholarships of up to $1,000 a year to qualified students. The scholarship fund is a vital component to the department, said Trentacosta.
Aliardo’s journey continued
From Sudan, Aliardo’s family moved to Uganda and then travelled south to a refugee camp in Nairobi. The temperature at the camp was 105 degrees at times. It was over-crowded. Aliardo had to stand in line under the blazing sun for hours at a time to get food.
She was there for two years.
Aliardo waited for her chance to reach America and be reunited with her boyfriend. He made it to the states a year before she began her journey. He sent money to her regularly so she could buy food and supplies.
While at the camp, Aliardo kept herself busy trying to find work, hoping and waiting for her turn to immigrate. She wrote a personal essay, detailing the history of her life. She described why she deserved to go to America. She prayed everyday.
When her time came she reached Portland in 1995. Refugee and Immigrant Services through the Catholic Charities of Maine helped Aliardo.
From a refugee camp to school
Aliardo found her boyfriend, who is now her husband, and immediately enrolled into Portland High School. She took English classes with a regular class schedule and graduated in four years.
She enjoyed being busy in school because her husband “worked like a crazy person” to support them and his family back home.
Now Aliardo takes classes at USM and has three children. She is studying to take the TOEFL exam so she can become a matriculated student. But she needs to learn more English first, and needs more money to take the classes and pay for the exam.
Money and being an ESL student have created a lot of problems for Aliardo. She wants to become a nurse to help the children in refugee camps in Kenya.
But, she’s concerned about the classes that go along with getting a nursing degree. Biology, algebra, and chemistry are hard enough, but not speaking English as her native language makes those classes a lot harder for Aliardo. Plus, a lot of nursing and science classes have additional fees.
“I need more money to go to school. I want to go to school to reach my goals. I wish I was full-time learning English and writing grammar,” Aliardo said.
Her current situation
Aliardo is a determined 26-year-old woman. She speaks three languages, her native language Acholi, Arabic, and English. She is a full-time mom, takes classes part-time and is actively looking for work. She faces the problems that many USM students face on a daily basis too. Yet, she does this with the limitations that come from being a refugee.
She doesn’t have a family to support her. Her parents weren’t able to celebrate her graduation or the birth of her children. Finding a place to live is a challenge when housing is so expensive, and finding a good job that can support a family of five is nearly impossible without a degree and fluency in English, she said.
Situations like Aliardo’s and other refugee students illustrate why the ESL program and scholarship fund are important to USM and Portland community, said Trentacosta.
Bringing diversity to USM
Refugee students bring culture, diversity and an eagerness to share their experiences to the community. They deserve a chance at the opportunity to live their lives to the fullest potential, and for most that begins with getting a degree, said Trentacosta.
Trentacosta is in charge of recruiting new students and awarding scholarships. She knows first hand of the hardships that come with being an ESL student.
“Refugees don’t get half as much (money), and you can’t even imagine what they’ve been through,” Trentacosta said.
The ESL program offers classes for both refugee students and students studying on visas from Japan, Columbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria and China. Almost all of the students begin the program by taking the fundamental classes, then move into fluency classes.
Although the program assists all ESL students, the scholarship fund is only awarded to refugee students. The fund targets refugees because the greater Portland area is home to many immigrants who struggle because they cannot communicate with the majority, Trentacosta said.
In her experience, many Portland immigrants already have higher education degrees from schools in their home lands, but because of the language barrier cannot find work. The ESL program is working hard to break that barrier, Trentacosta said.
One man’s effort
Members of the ESL program and USM are not the only ones dedicated to helping immigrants in Portland. Harold Zagorian, a Portland resident, is the person who founded the ESL scholarship fund.
Zagorian was overwhelmingly surprised at the lack of refugees involved with USM in comparison to the number of those living in the greater Portland area. He took it upon himself to investigate why USM had so few immigrant students. He went to the ESL Department and spoke with Trentacosta.
“He truly believes in helping the refugee immigrants. It’s his passion to do this,” Trentacosta said.
Last spring Zagorian gave $50,000 to the ESL program to establish the fund. Each awarded student is given $500 a semester, which allows him or her to enroll in one three-credit class and purchase the accompanying books. After each semester, students need to reapply.
Serious competition
After a little more than a year, the fund has given $11,500 to 18 recipients from Somalia, Ukraine, Cambodia, Sudan and Congo.
“The desire to participate is huge,” Trentacosta said.
She is only able to grant 12 scholarships per semester. This spring she had 30 applicants. There is only one other scholarship available at USM for refugee students. The Portland Rotary Club awards $700 each semester to qualified students through the ESL Department. “People want to learn, but money has always been a stumbling block, it’s expensive to pay for school, so this is a jump start for them,” Trentacosta said.
Aliardo is one of the fortunate refugee students.
She received a full $1,000. But, $1,000 only covers two classes a year, and for Aliardo, who wants to become a full-time student, that amount doesn’t even come close to covering the expenses.
Plus, she has to compete with the growing number of applicants every year for a chance at another scholarship. Aliardo is overwhelmingly thankful for the assistance she has already received.
“I got free money. I couldn’t believe it. Encouragement to study and money to do it,” she said.
But when she thinks about next year and her ultimate goal of becoming a nurse and returning to Africa, she feels like a car stuck in a rut.
“It’s sad. I feel like I’m in one place and keep trying to go somewhere, with wheels spinning and I’m moving but not traveling. And I can’t do anything about it,” Aliardo said.
News Editor Sherry Whittemore can be contacted at::