 Hi, I'm Katie Osorio. I was born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. I was raised in Kenosha, Wisconsin. My family consists of just my young brother, sister, my mother, my dad. And then at the age of just 12, I lost my mother to deportation. It took a huge toll on my life. Thankfully, now, this year, I had her be able to come back and see me graduate, which was something that I was terrified about because when you lose her, when you're in middle school, I didn't think I would see her again. So during that time, I realized that my father wouldn't be able to afford college. So I lost a lot of hope thinking, I'm not going to college. But then advisors from Gateway Tegucigalpa College came to my middle school and they talked about how you could do youth option classes. Like my light bulb just turned on and I realized I can't attend college, maybe take some credits and when I am able to afford it, continue it. A lot of my motivation to go to college was to do exactly what my parents wanted me to do, which was to follow the American dream. So without dual enrollment, I wouldn't have been able to obtain a college career. Even if I think it's expensive, college in the technical school first is cost effective. So it is terrifying for some when they hear college because they think I don't have the money. There is a way. The technical system helps you a lot and dual enrollments one way of making sure you go to college without having to pay certain classes. While you're in high school, the district is allowed to pay for those classes and for the books too. At 17, I became a senior and my daily schedule would be 6 in the morning, 7 to 12.30 I would go to high school and then 12.45 to 6 I would go to work and then 6.05 to 9.20 I would be in college taking classes. Gateway allowed me to take youth option classes here at night because I couldn't do it in high school during my high school hours. I couldn't do it during work because I needed to pay bills. So I did take the youth option class and that's when I met Carrie Aiello, my first instructor in college. I was fortunate in some of my teaching classes to meet Katie and then as I watched her in the classroom, I saw her the ability to interact with a variety of students all ages, different backgrounds and you know I could just see something special in Katie. Once I came into the technical system, I was afraid that my demographic of high school student wouldn't be able to fit in. There's people that are 60, there are people that are just barely starting their college career too and then there was me and I would think oh well how are we all gonna find the right help if we're all so different. But they all help you in such a great way they want to get everyone to interact. So I was able to make a lot of friends other than those at my same age. They know that we're all so different and they help you with that and they make sure that you need to feel confident in who you are and if you feel that you're different, there's places to go to here. So the opportunities that the technical system does give to many isn't just to fit one person. It's to fit anyone based on what they feel is needed for them. I work at a financial institution and I started working there at the age of 17. Normally you're supposed to work at a financial institution after high school but I also joined a program so I could obtain the job at a very young age. I remember thinking alright so I'm gonna go do my associate's degree, how is it gonna affect the real world? And that's what technical system is all about. It's showing you real world examples. It teaches you how to be real with yourself and what the companies expect of you right away. When you do group projects here you're not doing it with people just starting, just freshmen. You're doing it with people who actually have worked in that field. So it's kind of fun to talk to those people who have experience, especially when I don't have my own experience. I feel that as just a 17 year old girl I grew to be more mature because of these diverse demographic, different people, different backgrounds. The technical system, you're able to be a high school student and go to college. You're able to be a mother of three and go to college. You're able to be a father with a job and go to college. You're able to be someone that speaks different languages and come here and get help. And you're able to do so much more than just get an associate's degree, you're able to transfer those credits to a four year college. So there's so much opportunity than just a technical school.