Anna Ruslanovna DeGolier

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"I looked at the prerequisites for the dental program, put my fears aside and enrolled in a variety of difficult science courses. With unshakable persistence, I was able to conquer chemistry, physics, mathematics and biology taught in a language that was foreign to me."

  • Alumni of: 2006 Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship Program
  • Resides: Honolulu, HI
  • Hometown: Mogilev, Belarus
  • Age: 28

Biography

Anna DeGolier says her fellow Russian citizens in Belarus warned her that "Americans are different. You will never fit in." She decided to test those stereotypes when she won an English proficiency competition and an exchange fellowship for a year in a St. Paul, Minnesota high school. She discovered that Americans like more than money (another stereotype, back home) and concluded that "love, respect and willingness to help are shared between both of our cultures."

She left Belarus for good when she was 20, after three years of pursuing a career in teaching English and German. But the adjustment was harder than she expected. "I had no family, no friends, no job, no car and no money to spend. Every day I would wait for my husband to come home from work and be really happy to finally turn off the television I had been watching all day." She worked briefly as a waitress before enrolling at Normandale Community College, pursuing her lifetime goal of becoming a dentist. Working 36 hours a week and studying full time, including taking difficult science courses, has been daunting "but I will not give up my dream."

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