Louise-faye Parafina

My name is Louise Parafina, I am 19 years old and I am currently a freshman at South Seattle College. I’m

Filipino and I was born and raised in the Philippines until we came to America. I was about eleven years old

and was starting middle school (6th grade). From then until now, I think I’ve come a long way, especially with

my English. Language, was one of the struggles that I’ve faced in the past and even though my English isn't

quite perfect yet, I know that I’ve improved a lot and is still improving. When my family and I first arrived from

the Philippines we could only speak in our native tongue and none of my family spoke well enough to teach

me. It made it hard for me communicate, but I was able to learn from my surroundings like while talking to

other people or eavesdropping to see how much I understood from what they were talking about. I was able

to learn from school, of course, but my most effective way of learning a language was from watching TV and

movies and mimicking what they say, how they say it and what they do when they say it. Watching all those

movies and shows to learn English eventually lead me to have an interest in Filming and Media. During High

School, I was able to learn and experience a lot of technology based subjects like, Engineering, Filming,

Computer Science and even becoming a part of the yearbook staff. I was able to learn more about filming,

Photoshop and photography and it was something that I enjoyed doing, but I also enjoyed learning about

Engineering and Computer Science. Throughout my four years in high school, Engineering was something

that I focused on and worked hard learning and understanding it. I liked it a lot, but Engineering wasn't the

only thing that I could see myself doing as a career so during my senior year of High School, I wanted to try

and figure out a way to study Engineering, Computer Science, Film and Photography together in college.

Now, as a freshman at South Seattle College, I have decided to pursue an Associates of Science degree in

Computer Science as the first step and hope to continue with Engineering while minoring in Graphic Arts

(Film and Photography).