Canarsie Coed Receives Scholarship From Hispanic Women’s Group

Canarsie’s Sarmiento at awards ceremony with City Tech administrators (left to right) Daniel Fictum, Carlton Monroe and Olliver Davis.

Sometimes a path to the future is forged out of sadness. Last year, Kelley Dianna Sarmiento’s grandfather was very sick and passed away in a Brook-lyn hospital. Sarmiento, a Canarsie resident, saw that the nurses who cared for him were considerate and respectful. She asked two of them how they liked their job. “I love my job and wouldn’t trade it for the world,” each responded.

When she was a high school senior at St. Edmunds in Brooklyn, Sarmiento had been undecided about what to study in college. However, she took those nurses’ words to heart and enrolled this fall at New York City College of Technology (City Tech) to follow in their footsteps.

“I feel the way I can contribute to the Hispanic community is by helping people get better health care,” says Sarmiento, whose father is a sample maker in the Garment District and mother is a Queens public school teacher.

Recently, she was selected as one of five City University of New York (CUNY) students to receive a scholarship from the 100 Hispanic Women’s Young Latinas’ Leadership Institute.

The award of $1,000 annually for four years, combined with a Vallone Scholarship, enables the 18-year-old to pursue her education without worrying about finances. Sarmiento knows how privileged she is: her father, who is from Ecuador, was very poor and couldn’t continue his education because he had to work.

“However, he was determined to better his life and crossed the border into the U.S. illegally,” she explains. “My father’s action’s proved to me that if I wanted something bad enough I’d get it.”

From her mother, she learned never to doubt herself. “My mother worked very hard for her education. She went back to college for her master’s degree several years after her bachelor’s and thought she wouldn’t be able to compete with her younger classmates,” she relates. “She ended up graduating with honors.”

Sarmiento was brought up to help others and has volunteered at Holy Family Parish, and served as a teacher’s assistant in Holy Family School, in-structing elementary students in math and reading.

Sarmiento says her goal is to be a head nurse and expects she will put her Spanish language skills to good use, helping those who don’t speak English well communicate about their health problems. “Many times, I’ve translated for my father when he hasn’t understood what another person is saying to him,” she notes.

Then, she wants to be a nurse on a cruise ship so she can meet people from all over the world and learn more about their countries and cultures. “My last goal as a nurse is to work for the Air Force. Working for the Air Force is something I’ve always been interested in.”

“These may seem like big goals to achieve,” she adds, “but the way I see it, you have to dream big to succeed big.”

The Young Latinas’ Leadership In-stitute was launched by 100 Hispanic Women, Inc., in November 2002. The institute, in partnership with CUNY, provides awardees with annual scholarships of $1,000, leadership seminars, mentors and internships so that they can acquire their higher education goals, explore business opportunities, and develop leadership skills for their futures as civic and corporate leaders.