By Mikaela Reynolds, Director of Marketing
MikaelaReynolds@americantraininginc.com
Eduardo Fernandez may have been the only person on his street who was smiling as he shoveled away every inch of the record-setting snowfall that hit the Northeast this year.
Fernandez, 50, of Lawrence, was just happy to have a driveway to shovel out and a roof to shovel off. After five years of living here, it wasn’t his first time shoveling, and it won’t be his last. But this year was different for one very big reason.
For the first time in his life here in America, Fernandez is a home owner.
“I came to America in January of 2010 with empty pockets and a dream, a vision to achieve the American Dream,” Fernandez said. The purchase of his first house here this past fall made that vision a reality.
His mother, a local resident, put in a request to bring her son and his family from Cuba to the United States in 2009. Shortly after, the request was granted, but due to prior arrangements made in Cuba, he had to make the move without his wife, who would be able to join him and their daughter a year later.
He and his daughter Damaris, who was 14 at the time, arrived in the middle of winter. He knew little to no English, had an Engineering degree from the Ukraine that did not transfer, and little money when he arrived.
But he had hope and he had ambition. And carried by the two, he made his way to the Department of Transitional Assistance, where they set him up with LARE Institute and ValleyWorks. The two worked together to get Fernandez enrolled in pharmacy technician classes at LARE Institute.
He soon found an apartment and was on the path to success, when disaster struck. His apartment building suffered a fire. It was then that he realized the staff at LARE had quickly become his new extended family. A Colleague of the school offered him the keys to her family’s beach home.
“Even years later, I still remember that. She barely even knew me, but she offered to help,” he said.
He returned her keys a day later, when he’d found a new place for him and Damaris to settle.
Fernandez continued with his classes, without missing a day. Those classes which he began just months earlier, with hesitation for fear the language barrier might cause issues, soon came to an end. Fernandez not only passed the classes and his certification exam, but he finished at the top of the class.
He credited his pharmacy technician instructor, Della Al-Khoury, with his success in her course. “She’s a very serious person and a really good person. You can go to her with anything,” he said.
“I feel so fortunate that I found this place,” he said of LARE. “Everyone was so helpful and nice. They helped us with problems and situations we had in our own lives.”
Cheryl Watson, the school’s Career Placement Specialist and Supervisor, worked with Fernandez to help him find the right job. Within one week of his completion of the program, he was setup with an interview with Preferred Pharmacy Solutions. One day later he began working there.
Fast forward to today and Fernandez is still happily employed there.
“It’s a good place. It’s the right place for me. The people that work there are great. And they take care of their people,” he said.
“Within a month of beginning my employment there, I stopped receiving benefits from the government,” Fernandez said. “It worked like it’s supposed to, it helped us get going and then we stopped using it once we got things in order and no longer needed it.”
A few months later, about one year after his arrival, Fernandez’s wife, Keyla, 50, arrived to a well-established husband and daughter. She soon began working as a home health aide in Lawrence.
Together, their family worked hard to create a better future for themselves and their daughter.
“We had great jobs, bought a car, and were renting an apartment. We knew the next step was buying a house,” said Fernandez. They purchased a single-family home in Lawrence this past fall.
“I love it. It’s beautiful,” he said. Adding that all the work that goes into it “is an investment in our daughter, because she will have this house for herself one day.
“The happiness this house brings us is incredible. The feeling that you have something that you can leave at the end your life for your child, that’s tremendous. She will build her own great future, but we are going to make sure, no matter what happens, she has a shelter and a good life.”
Damaris was the driving force behind the move from Cuba to the U.S. Coming from a life where Fernandez worked as a mechanical engineer and his wife as a physical therapist, the transition to America was difficult. But Fernandez never let the language barriers or tough times weaken his drive.
“I knew, because Damaris was watching me when we first moved here, I needed to succeed. I needed to overcome any obstacles to show her it could be done,” Fernandez said.
“We had a good life in Cuba, but we wanted to come here to build a better future for our daughter,” he said.
Following in her father’s footsteps to success, Damaris turned that into a reality this past fall when she enrolled in college. After becoming a pharmacy technician while in high school, now, 19, she has plans to become a pharmacist.
“I’m so proud of her,” Fernandez said.
With Damaris working alongside her father, and now in college, and Fernandez and his wife still working in the same jobs, the three are happily living in their home, sharing the responsibilities of shoveling, and relishing all the joys that come with home ownership.
“The fact that we can dream up any changes we want to make to the house and then just do them ourselves is something we enjoy. It makes me feel younger, a feeling me and my wife share,” said Fernandez. “And knowing that anything we do is an investment for our daughter’s future, as well as our own, is incredible.”
He’s proud of the life he and his family have built here. “For everything we have here, we owe thanks to the team at LARE Institute, ValleyWorks, and ultimately to God.”
To find out more about LARE Institute, go to americantraininginc.com/groups/students.
American Training, Inc. is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that has been delivering premier, award-winning workforce development, day habilitation, and work and residential programs since 1979. Our dedicated and passionate family of colleagues compliments these programs with some of the region’s most dynamic support services in the areas of transportation, counseling, work-preparedness seminars, and advocacy. We serve hundreds of residents, including people with disabilities, youth, youth-at-risk, the unemployed, underemployed, lifelong adult learners, and those looking to get the most out of life. Our services extend across many cities and towns in the Greater Merrimack Valley area and beyond. We are recognized for our WOW! Magic, which describes the fun and entertainment we incorporate in our activities, while always acknowledging dignity and respect for each person. As a company, American Training is fully committed to bringing out the best in everyone we touch by using proven methods leading to lives that are fuller and more meaningful.
