The struggles and success of a hard-working immigrant student

The struggles and success of a hard-working immigrant student

HANNAH MARIE SABIT

By Hannah Marie Anas Sabit

The past five years of my undergrad have been challenging physically, emotionally, mentally, and especially financially. Firstly, the experience of having to leave my family and friends in the Philippines due to forced migration took a lot of healing, accepting, adjusting, and fighting.

Throughout my entire experience settling in Canada, especially in my university years when I became more aware of the pressing issues faced by immigrants like our family, I was disheartened and motivated at the same time. I saw both the advantages and disadvantages of migration, especially and specifically of forced migration.

Seeing my parents experience deprofessionalization and devaluation at their workplaces were some of the many things that pushed me to study and work harder. Even I, who came here at a younger age, had experienced layers of barriers from having to take an extra year in high school, to taking an English assessment test (which almost delayed my post secondary application and was also so expensive that I had to save up for two months before I was able to afford to take it). And this was even after passing my OSSLT and acing my English (Academic level) courses in high school. I even thought about taking a gap year because of all the expenses on top of such an expensive university tuition fee.

I started working at age 15. I worked as a dishwasher, Math tutor, did a couple cleaning jobs, fast food crew, then became a manager at a fast food restaurant closer to the end of my high school until the end of my first year in undergrad. Despite being a young student worker, I was a consistent honour student since elementary school in the Philippines and throughout my high school years both in the Philippines and here in Canada.

Fast forward: university.

I was refused admission to two institutions that I applied to because I didn’t take the English assessment test prior to the deadline. I also limited the number of programs/universities I applied to because the application fee was and still is very expensive! It was hard paying for all the fees as a high school working student.

Then, I was offered admission and an entrance scholarship to one of the most prestigious universities in Canada. I was very happy and reinvigorated that time! I never applied to the Mississauga campus because it was too far and I could not afford to leave my job at the time and look for another one nor could I afford to move out from my parents and live on or close to that campus. But I had no other options and at the time it felt like a huge blessing in disguise after almost giving up on my dreams. So, I accepted the offer. My biggest struggle was juggling at least one and at most three jobs all while in university as a full-time student plus being active in community volunteering and school-related extracurricular activities plus commuting almost every day from Toronto to Mississauga (home-school-work).

In my last year of undergrad, shortly after the Philippine national elections, I met some of the many amazing, hardworking, smart, and especially loving people I now have the honour to call kasamas. Since I became an organized activist with Anakbayan (Youth of the Nation), I have grown into a better version of myself. I have always dreamt of doing something relevant for society and especially for the people, the poor and the most exploited. I learned so many things and I was able to apply my learnings into practice, and vice versa. I understood in a much deeper sense why we had to leave the Philippines in the first place and appreciated my parents’ sacrifices even more. It strengthened my will to work towards making necessary changes in this exploitative capitalist society.

With this, I would like to sincerely thank my parents, my siblings, my lolas, my titos and titas, my cousins, my friends, my teachers, the people I met along the way, and last but definitely not the least, thank you kasamas! I DID IT! Nay, Tay, degree holder dn subang nyo hehehe

Hannah Marie Anas Sabit

Honours Bachelor of Arts

Major in Criminology, Law & Society

Double Minors in Sociology and Political Science

With Distinction

University of Toronto

#uoftgrad23 #uoftalumni

#makibaka #ServeThePeople

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