She always wanted to be a nurse. How an undocumented Sacramento State grad followed her dreams
Perla Valdovinos Galvan didn’t think she could go to college.
It wasn’t because she wasn’t smart enough or because she wasn’t ready. Galvan believed college wasn’t an option because she’s undocumented.
But Galvan always wanted to be nurse. It was her childhood dream. She had an innate desire to “do something good.” As her father was ill, she told him she would be his caretaker.
Galvan said that when she was 13, her father died from medical negligence. It was then she decided she wouldn’t let what happened to her father happen to anyone else.
“In spite of that, I still want be somebody else’s (nurse),” Galvan, now 23, said. “I need to take care of someone else’s family better than my experience.”
After graduating from high school in 2019, Galvan attended Modesto City College before transferring to Sacramento State, where she graduated with a nursing degree.
The road to graduation wasn’t easy for Galvan. She faced significant financial obstacles when it came to affording school. Galvan said she is “very low income,” had no money saved up and because her mother is disabled, she couldn’t turn to others to provide financially.
While she received funds from the DREAM Act and paid in-state tuition, Galvan still had to work to earn her degree. To afford college, she would take up any work that pay her. She cleaned houses, applied to scholarships and even turned to her nursing program for emergency fund resources.
But her financial responsibilities weren’t solely academic. She had put food on table, pay rent and buy her nursing textbooks that were worth nearly $1,000.
Now, as an emerging Sacramento State graduate, Galvan said she feels like the person she always wanted to be, and was looking for, when she was younger. She can finally help people and be a meaningful part of her community. And as an aspiring nurse, Galvan said she wants to be a person undocumented people can turn to for help.
“I had set my sights high, and this is something that I’ve worked for my entire life,” Galvan said. “I finally realized that I can do it.”
The thought of graduation is still crazy to Galvan. Pursing a nursing degree in California isn’t easy because of how hard it to stay in a program she said. It can even feel impossible. To finally finish, and start getting a nursing license, means a lot to her.
“Even graduating just feels surreal,” Galvan said. “Every time I think about it, I get emotional. There’s the little kid in me who spent her whole life being afraid and who didn’t think I could do it. Now, every time I think about graduating, I just want to cry.”
Ojo: Only 10% of undocumented students in California seek higher education, according to the Campaign for College Opportunity.
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