Maria Flores

Attending Inversant Learning Circles gave her the confidence to financially support her child’ higher education dreams.

Why Inversant

Coming from El Salvador with no education background, Maria always wants better for her four children. She joined Inversant in December 2009 when it was first launched in Chelsea Public Schools. “I never thought that I could have enough to save for my kids’ education. I always thought I can’t I can’t I can’t and didn’t want to think about it but the program showed me I can. Like a Hispanic women I think many of us see college as only a dream that will always remain a dream, only people with money go there. But that’s not true everyone can go if you look for help and try hard.“ She completed the program in 2011 and her son Javier just graduated from Carnegie Mellon University after completing study abroad program in China during his senior year.

Lessons learned from: Loan and scholarships

It was not easy to support Javier’s college process while she still has two young children to take care of. However, Maria still managed to attend every single monthly meeting with her two little boys. Although she didn’t go to school and was not familiar with the process, she was not overwhelmed by the workshop information but rather she felt motivated. “I learned many things, sometimes it was a lot but [the facilitator] Laura always explained it well. I learned about the resources I can have to help my son. The loans and scholarships that we learned about gave me hope that he can go to school because I didn’t have all that money to pay.“

Takeaway

“If it wasn’t because I joined the program I would not have been able to save all this money. It incredible to believe that I saved this amount of money, I believe I have saved an average of $2000 a year. This money is for Javier’s school expenses and for books. A little can go a really long way; look my son is in China right now. I never imagined I could tell people that my son is in China.”