The-Laker-Issue-Fall-2021

from the cover After high school, Ivan Castillo-Serrano planned to pay his way through a veterinarian program. He did not want to burden his dad, who already worked long hours. Since good jobs were hard to find in his hometown in the Mexican state of Puebla, the solution seemed simple: Go to the U.S., work for a year, and bank some cash. “My mom was heartbroken,” he said. “My dad said, ‘OK, if you want to go, I support you, but it’s hard, it’s dangerous.’” A year became two, then four, then six, and instead of going back, he met his wife, Erin, became a U.S. citizen and graduated from FLCC’s registered nursing program. Now an emergency room nurse at Newark-Wayne Community Hospital, he can tell you his plan turned out to be anything but simple. Ivan remembers the day and time, Jan. 7, 2006, 8 p.m., when he arrived in Nogales, Mexico, hiding in a dump truck with nine others, his heart beating so fast he could barely breathe. ‘I CANNOT JUST GIVE UP’ Ivan Castillo-Serrano ’20 defied the odds and the doubters to become an FLCC graduate and emergency room nurse. Ivan Castillo-Serrano ’20 at the FLCC commencement on May 22 with his wife, Erin Pomerantz-Castillo, and their daughters, Jeanavesa, right, and Izel. Born in La Purisima, a village in Palmar de Bravo in the Mexican state of Puebla, he now lives in Marion, Wayne County. photo by rikki van camp