This feature student is one who has displayed great character and determination in her life. Aileen Guillen is an international student from the Philippines. Her major is Web Page Management, and she plans on graduating in the Spring of 2011. She is 29 years old and works for the RWC Disability Services Office. One of the reasons she does this is to “help people as much as possible.”
I had the chance to look at Aileen’s resume, and she is very accomplished in the Philippines, as well as in the United States. She has a bachelor of arts degree in Humanities, a master of arts in Political Economy and a masters in Public Administration. The reason she is here at Raymond Walters trying to earn an associates degree in Web Page Management is to help out non-profit organizations. Who could blame her, considering computers are such a big part of fundraising and promoting?
She loves Raymond Walters because of how everyone has accepted her and supported her every move. She said it has been her “best college experience,” and everyone wants her “to do [her] best.”
Her inspiration comes from her grandparents, she says. And some words that always stick in her mind when thinking of her grandfather are “Never give up, follow your dream, and make your dream an actual reality.” She dedicates all of her achievements to her grandmother, who was a teacher in the Philippines.
When Aileen was in the Philippines, she worked for the United Nations Development Program. This organization helps keep the government and its citizens on the same page. They would give grants to non-profit organizations, and she said she would take on 36 projects at one time. This had to be stressful, but she said it was “a great experience.”
Aileen received arguably the biggest honor a student could receive on May 21, when she was named co-winner of the Raymond Walters College Student of the Year Award (along with Thelma Hodge). She has maintained a 4.0 GPA during her time at RWC, while working for Disability Services. In December, she designed a webpage for the Philippines that is intended to help the environment through recycling. The address for the website is http://homepages.uc.edu/guilleap/thegreenitch/framedef.html.
Overall, Aileen Guillen is an inspiring student and person, as her journey to make a difference in people’s lives is still beginning. Every day, Aileen has a quote from Mother Theresa that she tries to live her life by: “In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.”
This is an amazing quote that we should all reflect upon. Congratulations to Aileen Guillen, who is The Activist’s last feature student of the spring and Raymond Walters College Co-Student of the Year.