My name is Reina Esmeralda Gomez Reguan, I am 17 years old and I am in 8th grade. I have a mother and a father a younger brother and a younger sister. My parents work a lot and are not at home very much but even still they have known how to raise me well. Thank God I have finished grade school and now thanks to Escuela Integrada I am continuing in middle school.When I finished grade school I stopped studying for four (4) years. My parents would tell me maybe later they could continue supporting me to study middle school but not at that moment. It was because of lack of money and that is how the years went by.

But I did not lose hope. I knew that some how I would continue studying. When my father found out about Escuela Integrada he came and enrolled my younger brother and sister. I did not imagine that further on they were going to be offering middle school. That then was a huge opportunity for me, all the time that had passed and now I am recovering and I am taking advantage of everything. Because I know the effort that all the people make so that the children here have the chance to study.

My biggest desire is to become a doctor and know a lot about everything. The education that we are given in Escuela Integrada is very good and everything we learn we also put into practice.My favorite subjects are Science and Math even though I am not very good in Math I try hard. I have always liked asking people “Why do you feel bad?”, “What did you eat?”, “Why don’t you try such and such, it is good for you!” Because of that I will fight, I will try and I will work very hard to achieve my goal which is to become a good doctor.

I like soccer and basketball and I like to go on field trips. I really like typical Guatemala food like black beans, plantains, rice, fried chicken and hilachas. But above everything else I like to help people.I just want to thank everybody for giving me the chance to keep studying.Note: Reina Gomez finished the 2006 school year the best student in her class, 8th grade, with a grade point average of 92.

Reina Esmeralda Gomez Reguan