“CCC is a place where we care about each other.”

Gloria Castañeda came to the U.S. when she was nine years old. She learned English quickly because there weren’t very many Hispanic people in the area. Her elementary school hired a bilingual aid to help her and her brothers and sisters with their classes. Gloria now regrets having dropped out of high school during her junior year, but fortunately, she learned about CCC’s GED program through her sister, Irene Carrillo, who was working for Clackamas County’s Migrant Headstart program. After inding out that she could study for her GED at the Oregon City campus, she actually passed all the tests within a week or two, and says, “I guess what I had learned in high school had actually stuck with me.” She says that more than anything, she was motivated to succeed by her parents, who had sacrificed everything for their family. Gloria remembers her parents saying, “We brought you here because here you have the opportunity to become someone, to make a living without having to kill yourself.” Her mother is very proud of her children, who have good jobs, good families, and are responsible and happy.

Like her mother, Gloria also is thankful for her blessings. Today Gloria is the ESL secretary at Harmony Center. She thanks the staff at Clackamas for helping her get where she is, saying, “I hope to be part of it for a long, long time.” She is especially thankful of the Clackamas staff who work in Community Education and Customized Training, who were particularly helpful to her when she started working here. “This is not just a job for me; this is a place where I know that we all care about each other.”