{"id":263,"date":"2019-03-19T12:08:25","date_gmt":"2019-03-19T16:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/?p=263"},"modified":"2019-03-19T12:08:25","modified_gmt":"2019-03-19T16:08:25","slug":"gladys-valentin-05","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/2019\/03\/19\/gladys-valentin-05\/","title":{"rendered":"Gladys Valentin ’05"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Gladys Valentin has always been a woman with goals. One of her greatest goals was achieved after she realized that as a single mom, she needed to complete her education in order to give her two children the kind of life she wanted for them.<\/p>\n

In January of 2001, Gladys was hired as the secretary for the EOF Department at ÌÇÐÄvlog. After securing the position and fulfilling the required one year of employment, she was eligible for tuition reimbursement. Gladys returned to the classroom as an EOF transfer student to finish her Bachelor of Arts degree. While holding down a full-time job, she enrolled as a full-time student.<\/p>\n

Gladys took the first step toward reaching her goal at a community college. She said \u201cI already have an Associate\u2019s Degree in Office Systems Technology from Essex County College.\u201d\u00a0 Gladys found support through the Educational Opportunity Fund Program (EOF), a program that exists to serve underrepresented populations in the successful transition to college by providing them with academic support, personal counseling, career enrichment, financial assistance, and leadership development.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was scared at the beginning,\u201d she said.\u00a0 She recalled her first semester, \u201cwhen finishing a degree it looked like a huge, daunting task, but after I started seeing success, I actually saw myself finishing and overcame all obstacles.\u201d The EOF staff offered her support and words of encouragement, especially her EOF counselor, Maria DeLourdes Torres.\u00a0 \u201cEOF is family,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As a Spanish major, Gladys took Spanish history, literature and Spanish grammar courses. She found the grammar and literature courses the most challenging.\u00a0 \u201cI met a lot of new friends,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cEveryone was very helpful.\u201d She remembers her professors, Dr. Maria Jose Garcia Vizcaino, Dr. Linda G. Levine, and Dr. Diana Guemarez-Cruz who were very supportive through her years as a Montclair State student. Gladys was also able to foster a number of collaborations as she continued to work on her BA.<\/p>\n

By 2005, Gladys proudly received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish and was awarded the Excelsior Award from the EOF Program for outstanding services and dedication.\u00a0 In addition, she was promoted to the position of Program Assistant to Dr. Allyson Straker-Banks, the Assistant Vice President for Student Academic Services Department providing administrative support to the office and assisting with office management until the year 2011.<\/p>\n

Currently, Gladys works as the Program Assistant to Dr. Daniel Jean, Executive Director of EOF and Academic Development. Gladys proudly provides administrative support to this department. Serving as Program Assistant to Dr. Jean allows Gladys to experience working with the EOF Department\/Summer Program, providing incoming EOF Scholars and freshmen with an opportunity to become acclimated to ÌÇÐÄvlog, completing three to six credits of course work and gives students an introduction to overall college life.\u00a0 For Gladys, guiding students through this process is a rewarding way to give back to the program that did so much for her. She stated \u201cThat is what I really like, helping students.\u201d Gladys also shares her story with students who struggle juggling families and careers, \u201cYou are not alone, and you think you can\u2019t do it as a single mom, but I can relate to all those women out there, set your goal and make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finishing her degree was liberating and Gladys advises other students to give it their all to succeed. \u201cHave faith in yourself,\u201d she continued.\u00a0 \u201cYou can succeed and create a better life for yourself and your family!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spanish<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}