GRADUATE PROFILE
AMERICA’S DREAM
A TALE OF IMMIGRATION AND THE ROAD TO SUCCESS
By the time Bianca Zeelie enrolled in West Town Academy (WTA) in 2017, she had already logged more moving, and travel miles than most people amass in a lifetime. During the 2019 West Town Academy graduation commencement ceremony, Bianca, the senior class valedictorian took an opportunity to address the crowd, her classmates, and the WTA staff, and explain where she came from and where WTA has taken her in her life journey. With a Filipino mother and South African father, Bianca moved back and forth between Michigan, South Africa, and the Philippines before finally settling back in Michigan, and then coming to Chicago. Bianca told the crowd that “I’ve moved so many times, it felt as normal as changing your drawers!” When Bianca enrolled in WTA, she was introverted and had only made a couple of friends. WTA English teacher, January Yolich, observed exactly that: “When this young woman first came to West Town Academy, you couldn’t tell that she was in the same room with you. It’s not because she didn’t talk, she just wasn’t loud enough,” recalls Yolich. “Like many of the young people at West Town, she bloomed, transformed, and took it to a whole other level.”
“EVEN IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY, I REMAINED COMMITTED TO REACH MY GOAL. NEVER WOULD I HAVE DREAMED THAT I WOULD ONE DAY BE A VALEDICTORIAN.”
Bianca told the crowd that even after making friends, and setting her determination to achieve some lofty goals, she still internalized the struggles of living in a single parent household and not having seen her mother in nine years due to immigration restrictions. Bianca did what many of us simply can’t: she took that pain, depression, and stress and turned it into something positive. She kept busy. Very busy. In addition to excelling in the classroom, Bianca participated in after school art, gaming, and dance clubs. She also worked hard with her Civic Engagement Team, and played a role in having Columbus Day changed to Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the Youth Connection Charter School network and Chicago Public Schools’ academic calendar. Bianca broke out of her shell, and she did it with authority. Confidently addressing her fellow soon-to-be graduates, Bianca told them that they’re in control of their own future, and that it is their responsibility to make the most of it. Bianca turned to her classmates and said, “Your life is your canvas, your brushes and paints are your choices, and it’s completely up to you how you want to color your future.”
