Old college try
Granny turns life around & aims for degree
HERE’S a great way to apply the wisdom that is said to accompany age.
A Bronx grandmother from the Castle Hill Houses is setting a scholarly example, pursuing the degree she never had time to consider in years past.
Zaida Sanchez was too busy to think about college as a young working mother who was raising her kids in the Bronx.
“I’ve been through a lot of challenges in my life,” Sanchez said. “It was like I let the obstacles overcome me.”
The 52-year-old said she has struggled plenty with her own demons and, now, she wants to help others deal with theirs.
“I want to make a difference,” said Sanchez, who spent two years at Albion Correctional Facility in upstate Orleans County after a drunken driving conviction in 2009. “I want to do something for my community, for myself, for my family.”
Sanchez decided it was time to hit the books after receiving her certificate to become an accredited alcohol and drug counselor. “School was never a priority, but, as I got older,
my pri-
orities shifted,” she said from the NYCHA-run apartment where she has lived in for 21 years.
“I want to be a good example and show my kids and others that you can make a difference.”
Now enrolled at Bronx Community College, the second-year student is working toward her associate’s degree in Human Services — and plans to continue on for her bachelor’s.
“I just have this drive now that I didn’t have before,” Sanchez said.
“But I learned from my mistakes. Now I have a different mindset.”
Sanchez put that new outlook on display this year when she was one of 11 people to win a $1,000 scholarship from NYCHA and the City University of New York.
Sanchez has also taken custody of her 3-year-old granddaughter Mikayla, and now relishes the challenge of balancing those responsibilities with going to school.
“I’m going to make a difference,” Sanchez said. “Anyone can do it. You just have to put your mind to something and go for it.”