FELLOW TRANSFER STUDENT Klara Kang

 

LaGuardia 2010 - Florida Institute of Technology

“LaGuardia showed me I could dream bigger. If

I hadn’t started my education there I would most

likely still be cleaning bathrooms.”

IN 2008, WHEN KLARA KANG was considering the possibility of getting a college education so she wouldn’t have to clean other peoples’ bathrooms— the job she held prior to entering college- she was faced a major obstacle: What to do with her 1-year-old son while she attended class? “I couldn’t afford a babysitter or daycares in my neighborhood, so when I learned about LaGuardia’s Early Childhood Learning Center I was sold on my decision to go to school,” explains Klara. Having affordable childcare on campus allowed Klara to devote her time to studying so she could secure a better future for her family.

She enrolled at LaGuardia as an Accounting major and immediately began to excel. Klara joined Phi Theta Kapa, the international honor society for two-year colleges and eventually was elected Treasurer. PTK opened a world of possibilities for her, and professors encouraged her look beyond simply being a bookkeeper. With a 4.0 G.P.A. Klara began applying to some of the best universities in the country, NYU and Columbia among them. Klara chose to pursue her dream of becoming a marine biologist by continuing her education at Florida Institute of Technology.

FELLOW TRANSFER STUDENT Emmanuel Deegbe

 

LaGuardia 2010 - Sarah Lawrence

“Working in the Office of Transfer Services

helped me learn about the transfer process.

Through teaching people about transferring,

I learned more about it. It was a win-win

situation.” 

ARRIVING IN NEW YORK in 2007 from Ghana, West Africa, Emmanuel Deegbe was only certain of one thing: getting a college education. Enrolling at LaGuardia in spring 2008, he declared a Writing through Literature major; literature and music are his passions. “My ideal dream is to be a writer, but I understand the realities of that kind of life. After college, I wouldn’t mind

teaching,” he explains.

Emmanuel served as the Communications Officer for Alpha Theta Phi, LaGuardia’s chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, and maintained the honors blog, Barbaric Yawp. An internship in the Office of Transfer Services turned in to a full-fledged job and paved the way for him to gain admission to Sarah Lawrence. “When I started working there I wasn’t planning on transferring to a private college, but Professor Macheski encouraged me.”