Giving thanks: Vermont students talk about the guidance that helped them pursue their dreams

This Thanksgiving, VSAC thanks the dozens of students who participated in the VSAC Spotlight profile series over the past year. Sharing personal journeys takes courage, and we appreciate the effort and energy devoted to telling these VSAC stories.

In the spirit of the season, we’re sharing a selection of excerpts from some of these profiles. The experiences of these four Vermonters represent just a small sample of our Spotlight features. Together, these stories highlight the community of support that helped each student pursue educational and career goals.

This Thanksgiving, VSAC thanks the dozens of students who participated in the VSAC Spotlight profile series over the past year. Sharing personal journeys takes courage, and we appreciate the effort and energy devoted to telling these VSAC stories.

In the spirit of the season, we’re sharing a selection of excerpts from some of these profiles. The experiences of these four Vermonters represent just a small sample of our Spotlight features. Together, these stories highlight the community of support that helped each student pursue educational and career goals.

“I know my dad is talking about me finishing my school and that pushes me a lot.”

When Pascaline Furaha was about to enroll in Early College at the start of her senior year at Winooski High School, she knew the college work would be a challenge. But she also believed she could do it. “I’ve watched other people who came from Africa before me go on to earn degrees. I can also be the one to keep going and go that far.”

Pascaline was born in a refugee camp in Burundi and arrived in Vermont in 2019, at the age of 12. She spoke Swahili and a little Kurundi. Learning English was challenging, but she persisted and is now multilingual.  

In the ninth grade, she began VSAC’s GEAR UP college and career readiness program with VSAC Outreach Counselor Stevya Mukuzo. GEAR UP offers support to students who wish to continue their education after high school by providing financial assistance, scholarships, and college and career counseling.

Having watched her two older brothers struggle with the transition from high school to college, Pascaline took a different path to help build more resilience. VSAC introduced her to the Early College program at Community College of Vermont (CCV), and Pascaline was all in.

“I went for Early College because I didn’t want to jump right into university. I wanted to learn more about college first,” she explains. “I made the best decision. I’m now confident I can go to college and be ready for it, because I’ve already experienced it.”

Pascaline will complete her associate’s degree at CCV this year and plans to apply to school so that she may continue, and earn her bachelor’s.  

While she’s had to work hard in school, she’s felt a wealth of support, from her teachers to her VSAC counselor, to leaders of her family and her faith. Her father’s pride has been a major source of encouragement. “I know my dad is talking about me, continuing my school, and that pushes me a lot,” says Pascaline.

“I couldn’t have done this alone.”

Jeff Isabelle of Barre has been fascinated with paleontology—the study of dinosaurs—for as long as he can remember. While his lifetime hobby connects him to the earth’s distant past, Jeff has also kept his focus strongly on the future throughout his time at Spaulding High School in Barre. Hoping he could go on to college, he worked hard to keep up his grades. He also participated in the VSAC TRIO Talent Search program, an initiative to help students from modest-income backgrounds apply to and pay for college.

Jeff was accepted to the geology program at Norwich University. By March of his senior year at Spaulding, Jeff had earned enough scholarship awards to cover two-thirds of his college costs. Then, in mid-April, he learned he had won the prestigious Ronald York Scholarship from Spaulding, which further reduced his annual expenses.

Jeff’s hard work is a big part of the story, but he gives a lot of credit to his VSAC counselor, Chelsea Martin, for pushing him to apply for so many opportunities, and to his family for helping him out so much with all the forms. “I couldn’t have done this alone,” he said.

“Receiving the VSAC Advancement Grant was so helpful for me, and it’s also been a huge step forward in making drivers’ ed more accessible to people.”

Earning your driver’s license is an American rite of passage. Aden Haji, founder of Haji Driving Academy, is building his business on helping newly arrived people earn those licenses, bringing them one step closer to merging into American culture.

Haji Driving Academy specializes in working with diverse populations whose cultural and linguistic needs are often overlooked in driver’s education. One obstacle is the language barrier, which Aden understands firsthand. He can communicate with his clients in his additional languages—including Somali—and his experience as a one-time newly arrived person, himself, often sets clients at ease.

But Aden had to jump through a few hoops of his own to open Haji Driving Academy. He already had a degree in anthropology from the University of Vermont when he started researching what it would take to open a driving school, and he was surprised to learn how much training was required. He ended up accomplishing his dream to open his own education organization with the help of VSAC.

“There are courses I had to take in order to become certified,” Aden explains. Thanks to financial support from VSAC’s Advancement Grant—which supports adult students by funding short-term training opportunities that lead to job or career growth—Aden was able to complete those courses faster than he might have otherwise, had he financed the tuition entirely on his own.

“Receiving the VSAC Advancement Grant was so helpful for me, and it’s also been a huge step forward in making drivers’ ed more accessible to people who need that support,” says Aden, adding that, in a full-circle moment, several of his students have also received funding for his driving course under the same grant program.

“VSAC saw through me when I couldn’t see anything for myself. And I’m really, really, glad they did.”

Julia Gosselin is a self-proclaimed “outdoors kind of kid.” What was true in her childhood stuck with her through college and beyond, and in 2022, she graduated from Castleton University (now Vermont State University Castleton) with a degree in Wildlife and Forest Conservation. Today, at 27, she’s staying connected to conservation through seasonal trail work with Audubon Vermont and landscaping jobs that support wildlife, while she works at one of Vermont’s only emergency veterinary clinics.

Julia was part of VSAC’s Talent Search program. And Julia’s VSAC Outreach Counselor, Monda Kelley, saw her enormous potential.

“She pushed me,” Julia says. “I tried to push her away, and she came back. She reminded me of who I used to be, this kid who loved being outside and in the trees, and who loved nature. Monda showed me that I could turn that love into a career and she showed me how to do it. Without her, honestly I don’t know if I would have gone to college.”

“VSAC helped me open doors,” she says. “They saw through me when I couldn’t see anything for myself. I’m really, really glad they did. And, Monda’s been my reference on every job I’ve had. Even when I didn’t want to listen to her, she kept nudging me forward.”

Now, armed with a college degree and a strong support network, Julia is looking ahead. Her dream job? Working with Vermonters to design gardens, lawns, and landscapes that support pollinators and wildlife, perhaps with a focus on forestry and conservation.