Joelle

My mother, Lisette Barreau, and my father, Pierre Barreau, came to America in search of a better life for themselves and to aid their families back home. After the death of my father, however, my mother was left to carry the load of parenting while facing a significant handicap.  My mother is now blind and a widowed single parent.  Through all of this, she provided for my sister and me. The hardships that I faced in childhood were taxing, but they made me who I am today: hard working, competitive, successful.  Like my mother, it is through my efforts and hard work that I will achieve my goals. I believe that God does not put things in our hands, He puts them in our reach, and I am determined to stretch until I obtain success.

I have academic, personal, and professional goals. Allan Bloom is known to have said, "Education is the movement from darkness to light." And in order to work towards a bright future, one of my academic goals is to transfer to a university such as Cornell, NYU, or Columbia to obtain my bachelor’s degree.  One of my personal goals, on the other hand, is to not allow socioeconomic differences to limit whom I interact with. This is something I have struggled with, but NYNY has helped build confidence and push me out of my comfort zone. Finally, my professional goal is to utilize my interest in mathematics. I aspire to build a fulfilling career that involves problem solving, numbers and formulas.

NYNY is equipping me with the tools I need to be successful. In the three months that I have been an NYNY Fellow, I have obtained not only knowledge, but hope.  I not only speak to people whom I would otherwise shy away from, but I am even building relationships with them. NYNY has taught me that grades are important, but it is a combination of grades and relationships that will lead to my success.