July 11, 2007

De Anza College graduate hopes to inspire others
By Cody Kraatz
MediaNews

Rehana Rehman almost didn't go to her graduation because she was insecure about her age. At 28, the De Anza College graduate may have been one of the oldest students among the 400 who attended, but that just speaks to her drive and passion.

"I just realized how important this was as truly a milestone for me. It was a great achievement on my part," says Rehman, a Sunnyvale resident. More than 2,000 people attended the college's 40th commencement ceremony, and about 400 students accepted degrees and certificates.

Rehman and another graduate, Yosief Hailemichael, both selected for the $2,000 President's Award and scholarship, show that getting a community college degree is far from easy for many students. Hailemichael was born in Eritrea, East Africa, and worked full time as a security guard to get through school. He is transferring to San Jose State University.

The two were picked by Brian Murphy, college president, because they had overcome so much.

"I haven't had a very typical past compared to your average community college student," says Rehman. The Redlands native graduated with honors, a 3.8 GPA and an associate's degree in English. But it hasn't been easy.

After high school she went straight into California State University, Fullerton, but spent only weeks there. Her parents made her move back home and attend nearby CSU-San Bernardino, but she dropped out after completing only one quarter. She was working full time at Nordstrom in Riverside, where she moved out on her own when she was 19.

She took classes at Riverside Community College and met her future husband through mutual friends. Shortly after they were married in 2002, she found out she was pregnant, finished the semester and dropped out to have her daughter Leila, now 4.

After Leila was born two months premature, the young family moved in with her husband's parents in Los Gatos. She started taking night classes at De Anza in 2004 while her in-laws and husband took care of Leila.

"It was really, really hard because I felt like I didn't get much time to spend with my husband," she says. In 2005 the couple moved to an apartment in Sunnyvale, and Rehman stopped taking classes again during that transition. She didn't work because anything she made would be eaten up by daycare costs. Instead she became involved at her daughter's preschool.

Then, in the fall of 2005 she went back to school. With a bang.

"I just decided. I think I was ready," she says. She traded off child care with a friend she knew through a mothers group. "We kind of did this daycare system that was pretty economically friendly."

And this time school was very different for her.

"That's kind of where I got the zeal for all the different clubs that were on campus," she says. She became active with Students for Justice, a club that protests the conflict in Iraq and various injustices. And her service with the De Anza Associated Student Body was similarly fulfilling.

"You work with whole different areas, and it's not just going to class and going home," says Rehman, adding that what she liked most about her position was a chance to work closely with teachers and college administration.

"It just made me realize... that I really wanted to teach and maybe even come back to De Anza. (English) is so applicable that I want to teach in these new, progressive methods that professors have taught us today. English should not be boring."

Rehman is transferring to University of California, Berkeley, in the fall to major in English literature and plans to attend graduate school afterwards. "A part of me hopes there might be other students out there like me who say, `Oh, she can do it. I can do it, too.' "