Hello and welcome, welcome, WELCOME!!! (if I was speaking through a mic you would able to hear my screams welcoming you). I am so excited to start sharing this stories with you. Stories of people I look up to in my daily life. People that when I look at them I get to say, "I wish to be like them." Why did I decided to do this? because they definitely inspire me to do and be better in my life. I thought that by putting them all together and by writing their stories, I could spire more and more people like me.
As human beings, we all have something that unites us, a greater power that brings us closer together, an event that marks our life and that when we share it, we get to connect with others around us. In the Hispanic/Latino community we all have common story to share. Yes, I am talking about the millions of stories of the how we got here to this country. Even though, some people can generalize those stories, each of us have our own plots, our unique points of view, and the hows and the whys we must embrace them.
Today, and to have a great start, I want to introduce you to Jennifer Peñate, one of our KNWA Northwest Arkansas News Anchor. Woohoo! That’s right, she has been our first Latina evening anchor in KNWA News since March of 2017.
Jennifer was born in a Salvador and at the age of one, her parents decided to leave El Salvador to move to Los Angeles due to a Civil War that was happening (for more information about El Salvador civil war click here ). At age 7, she moved to Arkansas were she attended to Rogers High School and graduated in 2007. I remember watching Jennifer in the Mounties News from our Rogers High School. Continuing with her career and with her parents support, she attended to the U of A and graduated in 2011. She remembers her parents telling her that they wanted her to go to College so they saved money to support her; more over, she also participated in Work Study to pay her University studies.
One of the most difficult battles for Jennifer to overcome as a Latina has been Self Identity, "as a migrant I battle with the thought of am I Latina enough, am I American enough?" I personally think that many of us have the same issue. Overall, we all are struggling trying to find out who are we, why are we here on earth but to add on, for us the Hispanic/Latinos, we have to struggle through the process of adapting. On one end, we don't want to stop being who we are because there are so many good things about being us as Hispanic/Latinos; and the other end, here we are trying to have friends, to have a good job, to have a good life just like everyone else's. Not knowing that as being a minority in this country you must work twice as much to have a good job position and even then, it gets harder by being a woman (true fact). Therefore, Jennifer has been volunteering in schools to support girls from 5th grade in giving them lessons to let them know about their worth.
Thanks to Jennifer and others I have been able to find out that it is possible to win the fight of self-sufficiency, it might not be easy, we might even need the help of others, but we all are good enough to start doing something great. A echarle ganas mi gente!!
I hope to this little means a lot to you...
As human beings, we all have something that unites us, a greater power that brings us closer together, an event that marks our life and that when we share it, we get to connect with others around us. In the Hispanic/Latino community we all have common story to share. Yes, I am talking about the millions of stories of the how we got here to this country. Even though, some people can generalize those stories, each of us have our own plots, our unique points of view, and the hows and the whys we must embrace them.
Today, and to have a great start, I want to introduce you to Jennifer Peñate, one of our KNWA Northwest Arkansas News Anchor. Woohoo! That’s right, she has been our first Latina evening anchor in KNWA News since March of 2017.
Jennifer was born in a Salvador and at the age of one, her parents decided to leave El Salvador to move to Los Angeles due to a Civil War that was happening (for more information about El Salvador civil war click here ). At age 7, she moved to Arkansas were she attended to Rogers High School and graduated in 2007. I remember watching Jennifer in the Mounties News from our Rogers High School. Continuing with her career and with her parents support, she attended to the U of A and graduated in 2011. She remembers her parents telling her that they wanted her to go to College so they saved money to support her; more over, she also participated in Work Study to pay her University studies.
One of the most difficult battles for Jennifer to overcome as a Latina has been Self Identity, "as a migrant I battle with the thought of am I Latina enough, am I American enough?" I personally think that many of us have the same issue. Overall, we all are struggling trying to find out who are we, why are we here on earth but to add on, for us the Hispanic/Latinos, we have to struggle through the process of adapting. On one end, we don't want to stop being who we are because there are so many good things about being us as Hispanic/Latinos; and the other end, here we are trying to have friends, to have a good job, to have a good life just like everyone else's. Not knowing that as being a minority in this country you must work twice as much to have a good job position and even then, it gets harder by being a woman (true fact). Therefore, Jennifer has been volunteering in schools to support girls from 5th grade in giving them lessons to let them know about their worth.
Thanks to Jennifer and others I have been able to find out that it is possible to win the fight of self-sufficiency, it might not be easy, we might even need the help of others, but we all are good enough to start doing something great. A echarle ganas mi gente!!
I hope to this little means a lot to you...
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