Thousands of immigrants come to America every year with the hope of making a life and giving their children a better future.
- Graduating Palmetto High senior Rosmery Diaz, daughter of migrant workers, honored
- Diaz, 18, graduating in top 10 percent of her class
- Diaz studying nursing in college
One graduating high school senior in Manatee County is living that dream and giving a special thanks to her migrant parents.
Palmetto High School senior Rosmery Diaz said her parents are her constant motivation. Diaz said her parents have spent years traveling the states doing migrant work.
Now, she says, it's her turn to work hard to make them proud and help provide for them.
"(My goals are to) get a career, and get a job where I could provide for them," Diaz, 18, said of her parents. "Since they provided for me for all these years."
This week, more than 20 students from Manatee County (including Diaz) whose parents are migrant workers are being celebrated for their successes and achievements.
"I would really like to be really successful," Diaz said. "So that my future kids will look up to me and do better and anything that they can."
Diaz's parents came to the U.S. from Guatemala just after she was born.
Since then, Rosmery and her sister had to learn to deal with moving every few months as their parents worked.
"When you move in the middle of your first semester of Algebra in another state and then you miss an exam, the challenges are, are you on track for graduation," said Kate Bloomquist, migrant education program coordinator. "It's very tough."
Not only is Diaz on track for graduation, she is finishing high school in the top 10 percent of her class. After next month's graduation, Diaz plans to pursue a nursing degree at State College of Florida in Bradenton.
"It was tough," Diaz said. "I had friends who would actually help me sometimes but other than that I was always on my own."