Spotlight On...

 

Lisset Becerra

Volunteer

 

 

The Diversity Council recently found a new friend in Lisset Becerra, a 20-year-old single parent working as an intern at Hawthorne Education Center while she finishes her GED. Lisset provides general office help at the center, as well as translation services for an on-site medical clinic. With the learning center closed for the week of Thanksgiving, she spent two days providing much-needed and greatly-appreciated help at the Diversity Council. 

 

It turns out that Lisset has big dreams.  She hopes to become a pediatrician some day.  Lisset knows this will take a long time, “but I’m in no rush,” she says.  And did I mention that Lisset is a migrant?

 

More accurately, Lisset’s parents are migrant workers who, for about two decades, have spent half the year working at Seneca Foods in Rochester and the other half living in Texas.  They own a mobile home here, and pay lot rent year-round.  Lisset is a U.S. citizen, born in Texas and raised in the U.S. her entire life.  Her parents are documented workers from Mexico who live and work legally in the U.S. and contribute to the economy.  Now Lisset has entered the workforce, too, as a first-generation American. 

 

In many ways, Lisset is just like any other young adult.  But her school experience as a migrant was much different than most of her fellow students.  She never spent a complete year at one school, and the differences between the Rochester and Texas schools made the transition a difficult one. 

 

Even so, Lisset says she always felt like the students and teachers in Rochester welcomed to her, and she never felt like an outsider.  She faced greater difficulties at her high school in Texas, which had many gang problems.  That eventually led to her dropping out of school, but it has not discouraged her from continuing her education.  She plans to finish the GED exam this month, and then she hopes to begin college classes that will eventually lead to her dream of becoming a pediatrician.

 

Lisset already has a jump on many of her peers because she is bilingual in English and Spanish—an increasingly important skill as the Hispanic population in the U.S. rises.  Add to that her hard work, good nature, and willingness to learn, and you have the makings of a young woman with great possibilities ahead.

 

Rochester has many residents like Lisset who bring second-language skills and a first-hand understanding of different life experiences to our community.  Her family is just one of many migrant families who are vital to the economic success of area businesses that require an influx of seasonal employees to meet production demands. 

 

We hope you will get to know Lisset and some of the other resilient, resourceful people like her who contribute to the economic and cultural vitality of our community.  The Diversity Council wishes Lisset and her baby girl Ariana all the best as they live out their own unique American experience.