Hello, I’m Fabien Achinda. I’m originally from Africa, but right now I live in Saint Louis, Missouri. I am a 3rd year here, at Middlebury College, I am a junior I’m majoring in classical studies. My program is a nonprofit out of Saint Louis, Missouri that is supposed to help educate the migrant youths. Usually they’re about first-generation to second-generation. And all that we do is we educate them about college, what it is, or any other post-high school options, and then we assess them for the process. Yeah, that’s me.
How did you hear about the CCCE grant?
So initially I was looking at some other grants on campus, and I applied to one, and I didn’t get it, and I was very upset and I was very sad because I felt like I left my community down because, you know, I had made promises to them that they, like, you know, this year would make a bigger event. It’ll be fun. We’ll have food and this and that. And, you know, we’ll have rides for people, we will pay for gas. So when I didn’t get that initial grant it really broke my heart because I felt like I had let my community down. But I spoke to Mr. Jason who worked at the CCE and Jason was like, listen man you know, there’s another grant that’s actually meant to help students with these types of programs, obviously referring to the CCCE Grant. And so I got online, I emailed, I think it was Ms. Cleveland, and then I asked her if I still had time to apply. At that point, I was a little bit late. She said, yes, very kindly. And so I immediately applied. And about two weeks later, I got it. So I heard it from Mr. Jason, who works at the CCE. I came from Tanzania and when I came from Tanzania, I came here ten years ago and I arrived actually here in Vermont, in Charlotte, which is the town over. And I was here for about four years, and then I moved to Saint Louis, Missouri.
In Vermont, there wasn’t a lot of African people. It was mostly white people, as you know. So when I went to Missouri, there’s a big community of African immigrants, kids my age, a little bit older, parents, grandparents so on and so forth. And when I was applying to colleges, I realized that I didn’t know anything about the process. I didn’t know anything about financial aid […]and that really the only person that I could really rely on are my older siblings who they themselves got help from someone. The assistance of my mother, well, my godmother, someone who I came to know here in America who used to work in admissions and then I and then I had a really, really hands on counselor. And they both were like, so amazing with me. And they spent a lot of time teaching me how to apply, what to do, what to avoid, what to reach out for. And eventually I applied. But after I did that, I realized that many of my friends at church, many of my friends, my community didn’t have this magical godmother who was, you know, in admissions and didn’t have a counselor who was willing to work outside of school and meet with you a day before Christmas to help you. They didn’t have that. So I realized that I was very blessed in that sense.
So one of my friends, Moses, actually who was my first student, came to me, asked me for help. And so I helped him out with that. And then I realized then, like there are other kids like Moses who are smart or ambitious, who want to go to college, but don’t know how to do it, but don’t have someone to help them understand or learn about college like I did with my godmother or my cousin. That’s pretty much where it began. I realized I was blessed and that my other friends weren’t and that actually this could be a bigger cultural problem for us immigrants here because we don’t have parents who went to college, we don’t have grandparents who went to college. We really are here for the first time ever and we don’t know anything about the system.
So after I thought about this idea, after I helped out my friend Moses, I thought about the idea, I wrote, I think was like a 13 page plan of how I was going to do it. And what was the issue, my motives and how I’m going to implement my solutions to the issue and I brought it to one of my church leaders at the time who helped me out because I knew that I wanted to run this program, but I knew that I needed to have the space to do it. And the church was a good place for it. So I went to my church leader to help me get approval from the higher-ups at church for space. And one of my best friends, Justice really helped me out as well because when you’re running the program you can’t do everything. And so my friend Justice was very helpful, you know, with rides with the students before I even met with them. And so I wrote this thing and in this thing, I, I thought to myself, what is the problem? And the problem, I realized was twofold. The first issue was information. We’re immigrants. This is our first time in America our parents don’t really have much. We don’t have much to offer us when it comes to this realm of higher academia. So the first issue was information, the second issue had to do with help, assistance, more like outreach, right? Okay, you can teach someone how to apply, but sometimes that isn’t enough because sometimes you need to be with them on a Zoom call before Christmas Day or you need to be with them. And help them learn about these things. So I realized for myself, I wouldn’t have been able to apply. But if I just been told this how you do it, you know, I really was able to do it because I got help from my mom and my counselor.
And so that was … those were the two issues we needed to address: the information issue and then address the issue of hands-on, one-on-one help for the students. I would say, the I heard it somewhere online from a psychologist, they mentioned that like sometimes what is little to you can be so big to someone else. And so I like working with the kids for like an hour a week or 2 hours a week can really create a really big, big effect on someone’s life because, you know, that would lead to them going to college and them having a good job that would help them get their parents out of poverty. That’s one thing that I learned is that like, even though what I’m doing seems to be menial, like working on the ground, it could have a really big effect on the future.
Secondly, I think I learned a lot about planning and how important it is to be really steadfast with making plans because people rely on you to have that event every year and you got to have it. And so I think I’ve learned a lot about about planning. So, the result that my initial goal is to most of our families are poor, most of our parents are not financially literate. Right? All they do is they work really hard for us and they maintain us. Now, it is our job as the kids to go to school and get educated and earn money to help them move out of poverty, that is at the core of the program, it’s self-betterment for the betterment of our parents and our future families. And so I have a two kids who fit this model really greatly. My first student well, a student that I helped two years ago, his name is Dea, it’s a French name, and Dea is a very smart kid, he applied to the school in Missouri and normally Dea would have to pay a lot of money to go there. But because me and him worked together we found out solutions, Dea is going to that school for free now and now his parents don’t have to take out. The other kid called […] who is just a superstar. I actually helped her apply last year, this was her first year in college, and she has the same story. You know, her parents don’t have a lot of money, but because she worked with me and our program, we were able to find her a school that would take her for pretty much little money and with the help of other programs she went there for free as well. So theseare two stories that come out of my head. But ideally, like our job is to take the pressure off of the parents. If not now, if let’s say the kid doesn’t have a great GPA. so they have to pay money maybe later after they graduate, they have a job that could really alleviate that financial pressure that our parents feel.
How has the experience impacted you?
You know, I - I’m really a goofy person, I like to joke around, but I’m beginning to realize that people are depending on me now and that I kind of have to start being more serious and be more rigorous with myself as a person. And so I feel like one big effect that it has taken on me is it makes me think twice about my actions because like again, people are depending on me and my program. You can’t act in a silly way, like you can’t flunk out of school. You got to be an example. So when I’m here in school, I have to perform well […] for the reasons, but one of which is to show my students, you know, you know, it’s possible for an African to come to school that’s good and to do well. And so one of the effects on me is that it’s definitely made me more self-conscious maybe more like it makes me […] it makes me think more about my actions before I do them. It makes me like I, I would say I have a higher sense of discretion before I do anything because I know that I have kids who are looking up to me and I have parents who are looking for me to be the example for communities. And I would say this is the same thing for everyone working in my team. I think I think we all have the sense that we’re older guys who are leading the young generation and we cannot be, you know, we can have fun and joke around. But you have to understand that people are looking to us for guidance or to be the example. And so that’s definitely… I’m acting, I’m a lot more cautious about what I do. How I say what I say when I’m around parents or even here, like, you know, it’s important to show a good example.
What advice do you have for students interested in applying for a CCCE grant?
I’d say be very organized. I think the CCE’s very generous but you want to come up with a plan,
a really solid budget to show them this is this is my program, this is what I do, this is my plan, and show them exactly what you’re doing and how you’ll spend every dollar, every cent. I think that way it helps them decide if you come in and say, I have an idea, but you don’t really. But you’re not really organized. That isn’t going to help anybody. It isn’t going to help you or them, you know, it’s important to come in organized. Think about your plan, think about your program. Have a solution, have a plan and come in and then tell them about it. And then ask for funds.