Imagine moving to a new country and settling in one of its largest cities; apart from your family, foreign to the native language…

Lucia Meyreles first came to New York City over 20 years ago. "I grew up in the Dominican Republic and only spoke Spanish." Life was hard in the Dominican Republic. Meyreles lost her mother when she was five years old, and her father was poor and had eight children to support. "I didn't go to school. I couldn't read or even write my own name," she reveals.

When Meyreles was 13 years old, she put herself into school and continued basic education for the next four years. When she was 16 , she met her future husband, Jose, who lived in New York and traveled to the Dominican Republic frequently for his job in the restaurant business. They married when she was 17 and relocated to Manhattan.

Although she wasn't living in the Bronx, she heard about the education programs offered at Highbridge. "Though I couldn't speak English when I moved here, I learned gradually. At first, I couldn't even answer the question, 'What is your name?'" she laughs.

Meyreles began taking English, computer and math classes through Highbridge. She is the mother of three children and wanted her children to speak fluent English and Spanish. "I like to help my kids learn English. I look in the dictionary to find words I don't understand and try to teach my kids, but they teach me, too," she explains. "I even watch television in English to help me learn."

Meyreles found her growing knowledge of the language an immense help in keeping up with her children's personal well being. "Now when I go to the hospital, I understand my children's doctors. I can go to talk to their teachers at school, and I know what they are talking about," she says proudly.