English is one of the most challenging languages to learn. Couple that with moving to a new country with new customs and it can mean many challenging years of learning and adapting. Dayme Delgado is someone who has overcome all of those circumstances plus more. She is the daughter of two Cuban immigrants which meant that she really wasn’t exposed to the English language until she went to Kindergarten. As you can imagine, it was pretty overwhelming for a 5-year old to walk into a classroom and not understand a word anyone was saying.
For three years Delegado was in English-language learner’s classrooms. She told msn.com that she remembers feeling very frustrated because she did not understand the subjects very well. Except one: math. Math, as so eloquently put by Katie from Mean Girls, is the same in every country. Math was also the only subject that her parents could really help her with. In Cuba her Dad had studied to be an engineer and her mom had studied computer science, so they were obviously quite capable of doing a Kindergartener’s homework, but because of the language barrier, they were limited to math. Math came very naturally for Delegado, and she would eventually prove just how good she was at it, later in life.
Delegado eventually moved past English-language learner’s classes and into the regular classroom and graduated high school. However, she did more than just graduate. Delegado graduated from Mater Academy Charter High School where she had a 5.2 GPA and also two associate degrees. She proved to the world that just because she struggled with English at the beginning of her schooling, doesn’t mean she couldn’t be a complete success. She’s not stopping at high school though. She’s headed to a little school known as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a full ride scholarship. She will be studying theoretical mathematics and aerospace engineering. Even though Delgado knew math came very naturally to her, it wasn’t always evident to the rest of the world.
Since she didn’t look like what people thought a math whiz should look like, her classmates often questioned her answers, and when she attended math competitions, people often thought she was a parent. One teacher was a huge supporter of her though, and she met him when she was in eighth grade. Smith told msn.com that he knew from the very beginning that math was what she was meant to do.
She channeled his support and her knowledge of how great she was at the subject into tutoring fellow students and becoming the president of her school’s chapter of Mu Alpha Theta, a math honor society. She also became a huge advocate for other female students to become a part of the math and science programs. She even started a group called SheSTEM that partners with local colleges to bring different science programs to her school.
Delegado shows great leadership and talent for math. The last thing she told msn.com was that “the most important thing is to realize that math is just like anything else. It is not dependent on your gender or your ethnicity. Forget about what others perceived and just go for it.” She is an inspiration for immigrants and women alike.
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Source: MSN News
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