Resident: Fabiana Ferrante
House: BPW
Hi! My name is Fabiana Ferrante, I’m 22 years old and I was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela. I completed my freshman year of college back in Venezuela where I studied Social Communication at the Monteávila University. However, things in my home country started to get worse and worse. The insecurity started raising and it was impossible to feel safe anywhere, the food and medicine shortages got worse which made everyday life very difficult, and there were many other issues that are actually still happening to this day. Because of this, my family and I decided to move to the Republic of Panama in Central America. When we got there, we had to start all over. Everything was new: the culture, the people, the places. However, I was excited to start this new chapter of my life.
I then continued my studies at Florida State University Republic of Panama campus with a major in Media/Communication Studies. By then, we began to adapt to this new country and everything was great. But, a few months later, it became more and more difficult by the lack of opportunities my family had at a time as immigrants and so my plans for the future started to feel more like a dream that an actual plan.
I started working full time to support my family and took some classes here and there, but I wasn’t really sure if I was going to be able to finish my studies at FSU. It wasn’t until a friend of mine told me about SSF that I started to have hope again that I may be able to fulfill that goal. I actually applied for the first time to SSF for the Fall 2017 semester. However, even though I was luckily accepted, I had to reject the scholarship and work hard another year. Now I can proudly say that I am a senior and that I moved (once again!) to Tallahassee, Florida to complete my undergraduate studies here at Florida State. I must admit that these couple of years haven’t been so easy. However, I was able to move on and now thanks to SSF I’m one step closer to accomplishing one of my biggest goals and dreams: having my bachelor’s degree from Florida State!
