 My name is Angela Haney, but I prefer to be called Angie. Most childhood memories are on the south side of Chicago in a community called Inglewood, which so happens to be one of the most violent communities in Chicago. And from eighth grade, I would say my family life just deteriorated. Everything fell apart. About time I was 14, my parents were separated, and I was told by both of them that they didn't have room for me. So at 14, I was out on my own. I graduated high school when I was three months pregnant with my first daughter. And I'm proud to say that I am actually the only one out of my mother's children who actually did graduate high school. I walked across the stage with a stomach, but still proud that I did it through everything that I've been through and had witnessed I succeeded at that. I knew for me the best thing to do was to go back to school. A lot of friends had told me about Gateway, so I decided to give it a try and here I am. That was the best decision I ever made in my life. Gateway has completely changed my life in a positive direction. It just helped me to focus more on me, which is important because as a mom, as a sister, as a friend, as a wife, you tend to kind of lose yourself, but coming to school helped me get back to Angie and they instilled the belief in me that I needed to know that I will succeed. My dream team is my Human Services teachers. The Learning Success Center team is also part of what I call my dream team. These are the individuals that whenever I'm going through, I'm stressed out about anything, school-related or non-school-related, I can go to them and they'll pep talk me and get me on my feet. So those individuals are my dream team. They help keep my dream alive. I feel that there are a lot of things that need to be done in order to help everyone, all types of people, no matter what they've been through, no matter their age, their race, their ethnicity, their gender, their sexual orientation. It's just things that need to be implemented and changed so that others can realize their strengths and that focus on their weaknesses and I feel that that would be my niche to get in and to make those changes and those differences. What I have learned at Gateway that I will always take with me is that no matter what you have been through, always look at your strengths. You are strong in what you are and that I will always carry with me. The importance of having an education and having support and how family isn't just those people that you were born into per se, it's those people who support you, who love you and to guide you and that's what I will take away just to dream big.