LESLIE FELICIANO: I became a teacher because I want to give back to my community. I teach English as a second language, and I see at least 75 students per day, from Yemen, from Dominican Republic, from Guatemala, El Salvador. I definitely want my students to know that it doesn't matter if one speaks with an accent. It doesn't matter if one has the fear at the beginning of speaking the language. They could achieve bigger things.

I am an immigrant from Guatemala. And when I first came, I was very uncomfortable speaking the language in the sense that I did not want people laughing at me for saying something wrong. I also felt very displaced from school. I dropped out, became a teenage mom. I could have definitely become a different statistic.

In the back of my mind, I knew that I came to have a career. And I knew that that only came with education. So I went back to school. I earned a GED. I got an associate's, and then I really enjoyed school.

Going to Touro was definitely the best thing that I could have done. Touro opened doors for me in the sense that with a master's degree, one can achieve bigger and better things. My drive came from proving to myself that I am intelligent enough to become a professional and share the knowledge that I now have. And what better way of doing that than becoming a teacher?

I do often see myself in my students. Every one of them has a little bit of myself when I first came. I want them to take advantage of what this country has to offer. With an education, they can achieve many, many, many things.