“Valencia is a big and pretty city,” said Daniela Gonzalez, referring to the home she left less than half a year ago. Her family left “for many reasons, but I would say that the reason that most motivated my parents to stay here is the insecurity that my country has… and we don’t have a future in Venezuela.”

Gonzalez traveled to the United States with her mother and father as well as her sisters and her grandmother. While she hasn’t been gone long, she already misses the moments with her friends, the family reunions, her house and her way of living in her home country.

When she considered the environment at Armijo, she said, “Obviously it’s something totally different from what I’m used to but I would say that I like the way the teachers teach. Some are very dynamic.” She has also been taking advantage of listening to music in English, “mostly to learn the language and that is something I’m starting to like.”

Gonzalez was in a dance academy in her home country, but she isn’t involved in anything at Armijo yet. “Next year, maybe I’ll be a cheerleader,” she said.

After she graduates from Armijo, she hopes to go to college and major in some form of engineering. Eventually she would like to see her friends from Venezuela “since we were all supposed to graduate together.” She hopes that the situation in her country will improve. If it does, she said that she wouldn’t think twice about visiting, but after adapting to the United States, leaving here to live there could be as difficult as leaving there to live here was.