The path to higher education is often meant with bumps in the road for students. For immigrant students, the road is often more winding and challenging. Whether they left their home country to pursue bigger opportunities, or left to embrace new challenges, the reality once here is sometimes culture shock, particularly in navigating a foreign college campus.
Three Delta College students share their journeys to here, the challenges they have faced, and the solutions they have found at Delta College.
Ema Fua
Associated Students of Delta College (ASDC) President Ema Fua is a Filipino native from the island of Siquijor, known for its healing and love potions. The island was Fua’s home for the first 18 years of her life. However, upon the untimely death of her father, Fua, the oldest of four at 17, was left seeing her and her family’s life as hopeless as they had lost the sole provider of their family.
Determined Fua — only about a week after burying her father — took her fate into her own hands and discovered she could gain American citizenship because of her late father, a green card holder and Delta alumni, attending the school when he was in his 40s. Studying the U.S. Embassy, reading the website from top to bottom, Fua at 17 became a U.S. citizen on her own in only six months.
Shortly after she turned 18 and 11 days after graduating high school, she was on a plane, ready to begin her journey. A recipient of a national scholarship in the Philippines, Fua would have had half of her tuition covered had she stayed in the country, but the remaining financial weight didn’t seem feasible.
“I don’t have any knowledge about the U.S. education system at all. But I was like ‘you know what, you know I have this opportunity, I’m just gonna risk it.’ So yeah, I came here, I came to Delta,” said Fua
Taking advantage of every opportunity she could find Fua made sure she did her due diligence researching all the resources that were available. Now in her second year at Delta, she has become an active member of her community, a member of the EPIC (Empowering Positive Initiatives For Change) club, ASDC and ambassador for the foundation for California Community Colleges. She is determined to give back to a community that gave so much to her.
“The resources that they have shared are resources that were helpful to me and I want to spread to every student because it’s for them to succeed,” said Fua.
Despite her original culture shock, Fua found a community that could help her navigate the differences in language and general approach to directness in conversation.
“…luckily, I met some people who are very open minded like my friends or Mrs. Susan, [Susan Vang Director of Epic learning community] from the EPIC learning community and you know other people in Delta… who knows that I’m an immigrant and they kind of help me navigate the language and navigate the culture…,” Fua recalls.
The EPIC Learning Center provides a community for not just the AAPI community but also anyone who wishes to join; they have onsite counselors and meet with each person individually.
“We let them make it their own,” said Vang, in reference to her students who create and incorporate their cultures to the center in their own ways.
The center not only provide a sense of community to students but also gives the tools needed to succeed including textbook loaners, transfer counseling, study groups, and community.
Ruan Passos
Originally from Manous, Brazil, Ruan Passos has attended Delta for the last three years coming to the states on a F-1 student visa.
Passos, who is studying at Delta, moved to the United States seven years ago with his mother when she married his now stepfather.
The idea of moving to the states had crossed Passos’ mind before, but before then it didn’t seem like a possibility.
“So, I’ve never thought about coming to the U.S. Actually I did, but it was more like a dream. You know those dreams, you dream and you don’t know if you’re ever gonna achieve that,” said Passos.
Passos’ stepfather was a Delta Culinary Arts alumni. He convinced Passos to attend Delta, getting the ball rolling for him to be with his family in the states.
Passos applied to Delta and through the International Students department then headed by Mellisa Black was able to get the documents necessary to begin his studies here in the states. The international student’s department is now run by Majed Altaian, who helps students maintain visas and ensure they’re maintaining proper status.
Passos joined his stepfather in Lodi after he arrived about six months prior to his mother. He said his adjustment period was long and is ongoing.
“…When I got her I didn’t speak the language, and I had no (other) Portuguese speaker at the college… at least I don’t know any…” Passos said as he recalls many of the other international students being in pairs and he was unable to have that level of comfort in communication with others. “…that also helped me because… the only way I could communicate was in English. So, I had to force myself like more than I would have had a Portuguese speaker.”
Passos acknowledged his lack of comfortability of speaking English but also the necessity as he wishes to improve.
Though the language barrier is a difficulty he recognizes several recourse specialists who helped him in his education journey.
“Marisol Corona, when I got here she was like an angel, she helped me like a lot,” he said. Corona is an academic advisor under the communication and language division; she is also one of the educators involved in the no cost ESL courses offered at Delta.
He also praised Tina Leal in the Dreamers Success Center.
“Tina is another angel, you know, in student lives. They just want to help, you know you see when somebody want to help you… to this day I am grateful for that for having them…,”
Leal is the Student Service Program Support Coordinator. Leal and the center itself help connect students to services that may help alleviate some of the burden on the immigrant students.
Passos doesn’t take his education for granted.
“I see a lot of opportunities and I want to take them all. I want to take advantage of the opportunities … I also think you can build the opportunities too, you can do that,” he said.
Manjot Singh
The year 2020 marked the worst year of Manjot Singh’s life: it was the year his father died in front of him. Singh’s father died of a silent heart attack.
The shock and weight of the loss would change the entire trajectory of Singh’s life.
He spent the six months following his father’s death in grief unable to get the memory out of his mind. Singh would eventually come to the conclusion that he could do more good in this world.
“Before he (Singh’s father) closed his eyes he told me one thing he said, if you couldn’t save my life you have the courage and time to save others lives…,” said Singh
His fathers final message drove him to become a nurse in his country but Singh was driven to do more. “… that motivated me a lot. So at that time I made a promise with me and my god: I gotta be a good doctor.”
Raised in a Sikh family, he made that commitment not just to himself but to his god to get the necessary education to save lives.
After both his grief and working as a nurse in northern India, Singh studying for his U.S. exam in July 2023, coming to the states in August 2023 on a F-1 student visa. However, his path wasn’t a straight shot to Delta.
He would move from India to Irvine where he would spend six months studying at Westcliff University in Irvine. With the tuition costs and cost of living Singh would find this way of life unsustainable.
Family in Manteca advised him to come get his education at Delta to save money.
Even then the costs of tuition were a bit much. Singh lived in his car for a few months while attending school.
“…education is my priority so, I slept several months in the car that was hard for me…,” said Singh. “…I think everything happened for the good reason. I think that was a good for me because right now, I’m too strong…because at that time I was very weak, be scared from everything…but that life based for seven months, help me a lot.”
Singh found help at the Basic Needs Office and the Dreamers Center. Leal would not only provide him with money out of her own wallet for laundry but also helped connect him to the food pantry.
Basic Needs helped him find affordable housing in the area through the catalyst program. A joint effort by the Children’s Home of Stockton and United Way of San Joaquin county the program aims to reduce homelessness or at-risk housing amongst young adult ages 18-25. The program offers double occupancy rooms as well as transition methods to assist in finding and moving into more permanent housing. For more information on the Catalyst program go to https://chstockton.org/
The office of Basic Needs also offers a variety of resources ranging from book vouchers, food services (CalFresh and the food pantry), clothing (laundry and closest for professional attire) and housing.
Singh is a committed student who has every intent to capture the knowledge provided to him. Though he doesn’t intend to stay in the state permanently he plans to take his education and apply it to areas that need it most.
“I just was to(be) here to grab the knowledge, like how much can I grab it…my father told me you have to help the people. So, I’m gonna move somewhere else… I’m gonna go somewhere else where they need it.. I don’t want to work for the money, I want to work for the satisfaction and my goal,” he said.
