This true story below is about an immigrant to the US who through perseverance and focus achieved his dream of graduating with a BA in the Classics from an Ivy League university.
He did his homework by enquiring from his ESL teacher about the best university in his state where he was residing. It was the Columbia University. He worked as a janitor for 12 years to achieve his dream; all the while supporting himself, his studies and his family in what was war-torn Yugoslavia.
He's now aiming for his Master's and PhD.
I've known of a similar story here in Malacca High School where a middle-age school sweeper who took up the USM Off-Campus Programme in the early 80's and graduated with a B Soc. Science.
With the democratisation of education in Malaysia, anyone who has the will and the means can achieve their academic dream.
Bravo to these people!
Rodney Tan
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Janitor Gac Filipaj Graduates from Columbia
Gac Filipaj
Spencer Heyfron
On May 13, after juggling a dual existence – student by day and janitor by night – for nearly 12 years, the bachelor from Queens received his degree in Classics, with honors.
"For me, the dream was always about education," Fiipaj, 52, a native of Montenegro who immigrated to New York from war-torn former Yugoslavia in 1992.
After asking his ESL teacher what the "best school in New York was," he says, he got a $22-an-hour job dumping trash and scrubbing toilets at Columbia in order to take seven credits' worth of classes free per year.
It took over a decade, and it wasn't easy: bone-tired from pulling graveyard shifts then studying all night, he twice thought of quitting. "But I overcame it," he says.
As Filipaj crossed the stage at Columbia's commencement, the crowd erupted in applause.
"He has this amazing humility," says Columbia Dean Scott Halvorson, "but also this clear drive. It's an extraordinary thing."
"I think I looked a little bit better than I look in my uniform," Filipaj proudly reflected the next day, "because the uniform tells that I clean bathrooms – but the gown tells that I have a college degree!"
Now armed with an Ivy League degree, he's set his sights on an even bigger prize: a master's degree in classics, then a Ph.D., with the goal of one day becoming a professor. Until then, the humble bachelor, who regularly sends money back home to his family, has no plans to quit his job as a custodian. "If a job is honest,” he says, "there's no shame in it."
truly telling us no reason should excuse us from achieving our dreams.
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