Developing Persistence, Achieving Dreams Through English Language Center

• Jan 25, 2019

Alejandra Hernandez recently earned her engineering degree in December and Texas Global’s English Language Center helped make her dream a reality. 

Hernandez’s journey  started in  a small town near Leon Guanajato,  Mexico, where she grew up.  “We usually have internet only five out of the seven days of the week,” she described.

When presented with the opportunity to come to UT for an ESL program, she saw it as the perfect one-year transition between high school and college. She came to the United States in 2012 with the intention of going home and attending college in Mexico after finishing her English Language Center program.  

Flash forward six years later: she now holds a degree in industrial engineering from Texas A&M University. She believes her experiences in the English Language Center program at UT were pivotal in helping her realize that her big dreams were not impossible to achieve.  

“[The] English Language Center kind of set a standard of not quitting,” she said. “It just sets the bar high; even if you achieve something really good, you feel that next year you have to be even greater.”

But the process wasn’t always easy. Coming to a new country on her own presented her with challenges. It took her time to adjust to a new culture and learn to be independent.  

“I  still remember, when I first came here, I didn't understand what a debit card was,” Hernandez said. “When I first arrived in Austin, it was a really big struggle for me and I missed home. I was just here by myself. I couldn't believe my parents were just giving me so much freedom at that age, and I was just confused.”  

But she found support in her program and was able to navigate through her challenges. She believes her experience in Austin helped shape her outgoing personality today. While she used to be a shy and reserved person, her English Language Center teachers constantly encouraged her to step outside her comfort zone.    

“I went from being a shy person to talking to everybody in the classroom,” Hernandez said. “To this day, every time I get introduced to a new environment, to a new setting ... I learned to just step out of my comfort zone and to be confident that yes, I have an accent and yes, people may point it out, but I still have to go out and say ‘Hi.’ That's something I completely owe to the English Language Center.”

Hernandez also benefited from attending a UT Informal Class in economics. The class served as a transition between English Language Center classes and a full college class workload. At first, Hernandez said the class was difficult because it was taught fully in her second language, but being in a challenging environment taught her that it is possible.  

“The  hardest part was that I transitioned from being in an English Language Center environment, where the professors know that English was my second language, and then I transitioned to that environment where we took classes with other American students,” she said. “It was still hard, I'm not  going to  say no, but it was possible.”  

After finishing her English Language Center program, Hernandez attended Austin Community College for two years before transferring to Texas A&M. That also helped ease the transition between learning English and pursuing a bachelor’s degree at an American university, she said. 

Hernandez also found her family in the international community at the English Language Center. She met students from different countries, with diverse languages and cultures, and made priceless connections with them. 

“I was very surprised by the number of international students and especially how many people they have from Middle Eastern countries and other Asian countries,” Hernandez said.  

Through these interactions, she developed a new passion for Middle Eastern cultures and even started teaching herself Arabic. While pursuing her undergraduate degree in College Station, she decided to participate in a study abroad program in the Texas A&M Qatar campus. The persistence she developed in the English Language Center helped her get there.  

“I went to the study abroad office and they told me that the program is very selective,” she said. “So I would go there every day, trying to meet the director or trying to see who I would step into. And in the end, I was accepted and that was my very first challenge I overcame that I am very happy for.”  

The English Language Center also helped Hernandez with her writing skills which helped her write strong application essays and research papers.  

“We would have our peers look at  our essays, and they would give you feedback,” she said. “For a person like me, we know English is not our forte, so I was a little bit embarrassed. But  it really takes you out of your comfort zone and it really makes you put the effort. You want to at least write something that's  going to  be worth reading.” 

Hernandez believes her experience at UT was key to getting her where she is today, but she also believes in the importance of working hard and that a program is only as good as the effort you are willing to give.  

“I remember the English Language Center director Mike Smith telling us in the big orientation,” she recalled. “He told us, ‘Coming here is like going to the gym. You pay the membership and you can buy all these personal training classes, but if you don't go, you're not going to lose weight.’”

Hernandez has a piece of advice for current English Language Center students: take advantage of all resources UT has to offer and stay open to new opportunities.

“Sometimes things just don't go the way you originally planned,” she said. “But when you are in the English Language Center, take full advantage of everything. And whenever they ask you to step out of your comfort zone, you go and step 100 meter away from your comfort zone. Because you really don't know who you may meet or how much that program can impact your life later on.”