Jarely Becerra is 27 years old and in May, she was one of 1,400 graduates — in her case, with honors — of Delaware County Community College. She is one of numerous examples of excellence with an accent on Latino (Becerra is from Valencia, Venezuela) and her graduation is only latest accomplishment on the journey she embarked upon six years ago, when she first arrived in the United States to participate in an English-language learning exchange program.

“(After arriving to the Philadelphia area) I liked it a lot, and I felt very comfortable, but I lived in a community in which there were practically no Latinos. At that time I thought that there was no one from Venezuela and I felt a bit isolated. That is how I learned English,” she said.

After this first and enjoyable experience in the country, she returned to Venezuela. She requested a student visa for the United States, with the goal of studying International Law. “I always travelled here alone, I was never with my family, and it was a bit difficult, but it was what I wanted. I always wanted to study law and it is nonexistent in Venezuela,” she said.

That is how she began her studies at Delaware County Community College, where she became a fundamental part of Latin Flavor, a club that she describes as “not only showing people our culture, but something more like living at the university and sharing with everyone, and for them to attend and dance.” She did all of this while at the same time collaborating with organizations such as Puentes de Salud or scholarship programs such as Dream Today, created to help those students who are first generation to attend the university.

Becerra didn’t concentrate her collegiate efforts solely on Latin Flavor; she also participated in the Honor Society (PTK); became involved in the university’s government society: and become a Success Ambassador for first year students — because one of her main objectives always was to inform people of all the opportunities and assistance offered by the university. 

“I was strongly impacted by how the university here helps you so much. If you are single, there is a scholarship. If you are someone who started his/her studies late, there is a program that helps you to be able to take more classes and to have a tutor looking after you. That greatly impacted me; that there were tutors at the university that you didn’t have to pay for in math, English, history classes…. I would say to myself that there are so many opportunities and students are not aware of them because they don’t ask, and so I started working on this,” Becerra said.

That lack of awareness is not only within the Latino community. “I was greatly impacted at how people from here graduate from high school and enter a private university without knowing that they can request scholarships,” Becerra said. “That is why I focus my efforts on providing information about options such as dual enrollment — which is the possibility to graduate with an associate degree and from high school at the same time. These are details that people do not know about, and that if you work a bit harder and employ greater efforts, you can achieve.”

In addition to the large number of programs and assistance offered, Becerra said that Delaware County Community College is trying to make studying there friendlier for Latinos. “You can get management assistance, in Spanish, at the university,” she said. “And if they say ‘no’, you say, ‘I know it is so.’ We made sure that this could happen. The university application is already in Spanish, as is information pertaining to financial aid and how to apply. All of these are changes achieved by Professor Fernando Benavides through Lion (Latino Initiative Outreach Network). We students demanded and the university listened.”

Latinos: More than a minority

“I have seen how so many Hispanic politicians exist and this excites me because a few years ago it was difficult to find anyone in a northeastern city with whom to identify in terms of representatives, Congress members, etc. Now … there are more Hispanics than there were before, we are now more than a minority. I am not saying we are a majority, but we are a group that can make itself felt,” Becerra said.

“I am not going to lie,” she added, “when I arrived here four or five years ago, I did not see a connection between Latinos. But the more time passes by and the more I see Philly and its surroundings, I notice that there are so many agencies that provide help, that offer services in Spanish. I feel that bit by bit in Philadelphia the community has become as united as New York might be. There has been an incredible organization that has allowed this to happen.”

Now, after graduating with a liberal arts degree, Jarely Becerra has decided to take some time to save money in order to continue her studies — either at law school or to become a social worker. She is currently doing an internship at the legal department of Nationalities Services Center in Philadelphia.

Her advice for all those who decide to leave their country and come to the United States? “Try to understand what you are getting into. First of all, where it is. Though it might sound a bit closed-minded, you should set up where you know that there are more people like you because it truly helps.”

Also, she suggested, that people should come to the country with a plan. “You need to be sure you have option 1 and option 2,” Becerra said, “because here in the United States though people say things are easy, it’s not always true. Here one must work very hard. But it is about coming here focused on what your goals are and what your dreams are, and to evaluate them to see if it is really worthwhile for you to come here. Because if you work and do things right your sacrifices will soon become triumphs.”

Above all, the main advice that Becerra offers based on her experience, is to “Study, to get to know and to learn. There is a lot of information and many ways to get what you set out to do,” she said. “Instead of thinking that there is only one way for you to get what you want and that is starting from the top, remember that if you start from the bottom here there are many steps you can take. And that will strengthen you in order to be able to reach your greatest goal.”