Meet our Students

1. What is your full name?
My name is Deniece Cheney.

2. What country do you come from?
I'm from Indonesia.

3. What is your favorite place in Seattle?
My favorite places in Seattle are the coffee shops around Capitol Hill and the parks, especially the Arboretum and Discovery Park. Pike Place Market is also one of my favorites. I always dream to work in one of the shops around there.

4. What do you enjoy most about Seattle Central?
What I enjoy the most about SCCC is its vast variety of students. Knowing that you're not the only foreigner in this school makes you feel like you have a family. I've been working at the Student Activity Center for almost three years now, and I've built great friendships with some of the co-workers and employers who work there.

This year, I'm in the graphic design program. It is one of the two-year programs offered by SCCC. Even though the classes keep me busy, and I have to stay in school, working in the computer lab all day long, my classmates and my instructors keep me going. Since you have the same classmates and the same instructors for the whole two years that you're in the program, it really makes you feel like you have a big family.

I also love the fact that SCCC has a great location. I can see the Space Needle and Mt. Rainier from the 5th floor of the main building on campus and still be able to do my homework.

5. What are your plans for the future?
My plan for the future are to get a job as a graphic designer after I graduate from SCCC. Hopefully by that time, the economy will be in better shape.

6. What are the biggest differences between life in your country and life in Seattle?
The biggest difference between life in Indonesia and in Seattle is its convenience. Here, you're able to borrow all kinds of books from a library, whereas in Indonesia, there are not many libraries available for the public. Thus, you don't learn much aside from the education that they offer you in schools or in colleges. Another difference is that here you have a chance to actually live by yourself and learn to do things by yourself. Whereas in Indonesia, you would have to be married in order to live separately from your parents, in most cases. I also like the fact that here people are very friendly. They're willing to help each other out even when you've just met them.

7. What do you consider to be your biggest accomplishments? Why?
The biggest thing I've accomplished so far is to be able to make friends with people from different backgrounds, ethnicities, and ages; to be able to merge well with them and adjust to the cultural differences; and lastly to be able to speak English as if it were my mother tongue. When you have the ability to accomplish that, you learn to get more in touch with yourself. Your understanding of yourself is more enhanced when you have an understanding about other people and what they've gone through.

8. What do you consider to be an interesting fact about you?
An interesting fact about me I guess would be my ethnic and linguistic background. I was born in Indonesia as half Chinese and German. I've spoke Indonesian and Chinese all my life, and I speak a little bit of German. What is interesting about that is that here, Americans and most Caucasian people would consider me as Asian, whereas in Indonesia, or also here, the Asian people would consider me as Caucasian. However, most people do agree and have commented that I have a slight European accent, but I have no clue where that is coming from.

9. What are your hobbies?
My hobbies are drawing and hiking. But in the past year, I've been really interested in poetry. I read poetry a lot, and often go to stage fright events around Capitol Hill. This year, I designed and self-published my first poetry book that I edited from different sources by famous poets.

10. What were you doing prior to coming to Seattle to study at Seattle Central?
Before I came to Seattle, I was in Taiwan for eight months. I was there to deepen my Chinese ability in writing. And before that, I spent about a year studying graphic design in Indonesia after I graduated from high school.