Emmie Lucero-Garrido (left) and Kelly Garrido (Photos by Assunta Ng/NWAW)
Lately, I’ve met many inspiring women. You’d be surprised, ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things.
Karen Terrado
At the Center for Career Alternatives annual dinner at the Seattle Sheraton Hotel, a CCA graduate who inspired me was Karen Terrado, an immigrant from the Philippines.
Even though she was 17, her dream was to become a leader. I tried to remember what I did when I was 17. I have to confess that I was still asleep in terms of my thinking. I had no goals, no dreams, nothing, period.
Another alum, Emmie Lucero-Garrido, a single mom of Native American heritage, had a lot of jobs and skills, from being a school bus driver to a singer. Self-awareness told her that she had no direction. Through CCA, she decided to get some employable skills like welding, and she enrolled at community colleges and received a GPA of 3.9.
It must be a hard life with three kids, working and going to school. But when I met her, the first thing she said was that some day, she would like to give back to the community. What a spirit! ♦