Meet our Students

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1. What is your full name?
Leonardo Guerra.

2. What country do you come from?
Venice, Italy.

3. Describe your program of study.
I studied in the College Bridge program for one quarter, and then moved to full-time college studies in Business to receive my degree.

4. What are your plans and goals for the future?
My immediate goals are to use OPT (for which I applied months ago with the great help of the international office) so that I can work in the U.S.A. After my OPT expires, I would like to study at the University of Washington or another university here in Seattle.

5. Do you think Seattle Central is helping you achieve your goals? Why or why not?
Seattle Central gave me the opportunity to be a student again and helped me tremendously looking for a new career. I was a very lazy student years ago, but here at Seattle Central the opportunity to interact with so many international students, and with Seattleites and other WA residents, showed me how to achieve my goals and have fun at the same time.

6. How would you describe Seattle?
Seattle is the most diverse city you can have the luck of experiencing on the West Coast, and it feels relatively secure and with lots of chances to have a social life as well.

7. What is your favorite place in Seattle?
My life revolved around the college for the past 3 years, so I would say that Capitol Hill is a neighborhood I hung out in the most. The almost new Cal Anderson Park is just beautiful and right next door to the college. Other favorites are the Seattle waterfront and Olympic Park, and walking in Volunteer Park. Alki beach is also on my top list!

8. How would you describe Seattle Central Community College?
Seattle Central represents almost perfectly the city of Seattle itself. Motivated, always “on the move” (looking for something new to do or experience), laid back, high tech, with a pool of teachers willing to make you study hard so that you are ready for the future challenges that lay ahead of you.

9. What do you consider to be an interesting fact about you?
I stopped going to school when I was 13 years old. More than 20 years later I found out that studying could actually be interesting and engaging. I deeply loved being a student here, and as a result new frontiers are open in front of me now.

10. What were you doing prior to coming to Seattle to study at Seattle Central?
I had two businesses in Italy, both with my relatives. I needed a change though, and Seattle Central provided the perfect occasion to broaden my vision of the world.

11. What are the biggest differences between life in your country and life in Seattle?
I come from a very little town, so the differences are gigantic. I knew everyone in my town in Italy and that provided a sense of community and friendship I thought I was not going to experience here. Thanks to the Soccer club here at Seattle Central and to the boys and girls of Student Leadership, that sense of being part of a society acquired a new meaning and scope.

12. Is there anything else you’d like to say to prospective students in your country?
I was a poor student when I was a younger man. When I came here I didn’t know I could love math as instead happened! My math classes were helped by one of the many amazing teachers I met here such as Jo-Anne Bartlett, who assisted me in succeeding in what I believed was an impossible task.

Coming to Seattle Central is one of the best things you can do for you and your career. It is neither the college per se, nor the city alone. It’s the combination of those two and the diversity you will find here which makes a big portion of the experiences that will remain with you as an indelible mark in your soul and on your resume. Granted, you can have this nowhere in Italy.