Liya Gezae

My name is Liya K. Gezae. I am a student at California State University East Bay completing my bachelor’s degree in business administration concentration in accounting. I was born and raised in Asmara, the capital city of Eritrea, located in East Africa. My mom is a retired accountant; she retired from one of the best-known textile companies in the city after she has been working for more than thirty-five years. I grew up seeing her do math and accounting, which made a big impression on my life. Ever since, I have wanted to be like my mom, an accountant.

In 2007, I joined the Eritrea Institute of Technology to become an accountant. Unfortunately, because I experienced some medical issues, I was forced to withdraw from college. Despite the ups and downs, in late 2011, I got a chance to join a private college, SMAP Institute of technology. I graduated with an Associate Degree in Accounting with a cumulative GPA of 4.00 in December 2013 and became a Gold medal awarded student from the Accounting department. Following my graduation, I had the privilege to work as an accountant in an accounting firm where I had a chance to grow professionally.

I was so passionate to further my studies to be a certified accountant and accepted to Devry University, the USA in October 2015. However, due to financial issues, I was not able to continue my study. In August 2019, I joined the West valley-Mission college in Santa Clara, California, to get my degree. As a result of my hard work and the support that I got from the people around me, I graduated from Mission College with an Associate of Science in Accounting with a cumulative GPA of 4.0 in May 2020. I am the first in my family to graduate from college and join University. I am so grateful to get an admission from California State University East Bay for fall 2020, where I am currently attending class towards a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting. Joining a new university, attending full-time online classes, and working as an essential worker during the coronavirus pandemic has been very difficult because that was my first time taking the class online, but I decided to work hard in order to keep my GPA 4.0 uptodate .