Margarita Rodriguez started to dream a little when she came to the United States at the age of 38 from Mexico, where she was a housewife.
Staff Photo by Jake Daniels/Chattanooga Times Free Press
Sally Waheed, Diana Whayeb and Reina Phillips, left to right, listen to Dee Lapihuska go over the answers to a diagnostic test. They and other students attended a Test of English as a Foreign Language class — TOEFL for short — taught by Lapihuska at Chattanooga State Community College on Thursday.“I consider education the American dream,” said the single mother, now 41, who wants to work in the medical field.
In Mexico, she completed high school but didn’t continue her education because she got married, she said.
When she arrived in Chattanooga, she focused on studying English and eventually earned her high school equivalency diploma. Now she says she’s closer to achieving her dream of a better future for herself and her three children.
She’s one of 15 students in Chattanooga State Community College’s first free Test of English as a Foreign Language preparation class.