I am a twenty-two year-old Latino student at Chester College. I have been at this school for going on four years. I am a Creative-Writing major with a passion for a mixture of words combined into sentences and the smell of new books. Writing is my passion–the one thing I do that I can hold on to and say that I am proud of.

Coming from an inner-city high school in San Francisco, Chester College of New England offered me a place to sit and find my voice through the power of boot-camp style writing workshops and critiques. The writing professors at Chester encouraged me to read the classics, write every day, and find my voice through the power of honesty. I am not the same writer I was when I came in 2008. For that, I am grateful.

Chester College is my second home–it opened its doors to me when others stopped believing in me. I appreciate its judge-free environment, its low student-to-faculty ratio, and the heart that the students have shown in the past couple of days to stick together and save the school. It is important to fight to keep its doors open because society needs art. Without art, especially writing, people wouldn’t have another escape, or someone to relate to, or something to analyze and love. Or to simply enjoy on a cold, rainy night.

…And to lose it all due to financial crisis is heartbreaking. That is why we are doing everything humanly possible to SAVE CHESTER COLLEGE–that’s how much we believe in ART.