{"id":317753,"date":"2024-02-23T13:14:43","date_gmt":"2024-02-23T17:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/?p=317753"},"modified":"2024-02-23T13:14:43","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23T17:14:43","slug":"dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/homepage-carousel\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Dominican student makes history at US college"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_317754\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-317754\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-317754\" src=\"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Screenshot-from-2024-02-23-11-54-58-642x446.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"445\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-317754\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Verena Lake<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Dominican student, Verena Lake, has made history at the Penn State Wilkes-Barre campus for being the first female black student to enroll in the Surveying Engineering Program. Lake&#8217;s achievement was featured on Eyewitness News, serving Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania and newspaper PAhomepage as part of Black History Month in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>According to the newspaper article,\u00a0 her path to surveying engineering was not typical. It stated that she earned three associate degrees: one in geography, one in physics, and another in biology in Dominica but questioned what she would do with them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfterward I researched what can I do with the degrees that I have already and that\u2019s how I found out about surveying engineering because it\u2019s very physics and geography intensive,\u201d Lake told the newspaper and Eyewitness News.<\/p>\n<p>She settled on attending Penn State Wilkes-Barre campus but had to deal with some challenges.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had to delay my acceptance because I had issues getting my visa so that was a battle and then I finally came as a sponsored student,\u201d she stated.<\/p>\n<p>Another problem she had to deal with was tuition, according to the newspaper.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy home country was paying for my tuition and then there was a struggle with that because unfortunately the payments were not always made on time and so that caused&#8230;let\u2019s just say I was at the bursar\u2019s office a lot,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the challenges, Lake did not give up hope and according to PAhomepage, her professors allowed her to sit in on classes.<\/p>\n<p>The young student said she was in disbelief when she was told that she was the first black female student to enroll in the program.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWow, I remember the first time it was said to me. It was actually the Director of Student Affairs Wanda Ochei who told me and I was in disbelief,\u201d she was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n<p>She will be graduating in May but said she has mixed feelings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of different mix of emotions I was happy of course I felt honored to be the first and then the other side of that was wish I could share like it\u2019s nice to be the first but I wish there was a second or a third black woman that I could identify,\u201d she told PAhomepage.<\/p>\n<p>She had some words of advice for other students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust because you\u2019ll be the first doesn\u2019t mean it can\u2019t be done so you\u2019re probably the one who has to be the first to inspire others to let them know that yes they can do it,\u201d she remarked.<\/p>\n<p>Verena Lake is a former student of the Convent High School and the Dominica State College.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dominican student, Verena Lake, has made history at the Penn State Wilkes-Barre campus for being the first female black student to enroll in the Surveying Engineering Program. Lake&#8217;s achievement was featured on Eyewitness News, serving Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania and&#8230;","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":317754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,235,25,313,305,9,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-317753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-educationyouth","category-homepage-carousel","category-human-interest","category-immigration","category-migration","category-news","category-tourism-publicity"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Dominican student makes history at US college - Dominica News Online<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/homepage-carousel\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dominican student makes history at US college - Dominica News Online\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dominican student, Verena Lake, has made history at the Penn State Wilkes-Barre campus for being the first female black student to enroll in the Surveying Engineering Program. Lake&#8217;s achievement was featured on Eyewitness News, serving Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania and...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/homepage-carousel\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dominica News Online\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"Malaika\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-23T17:14:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Screenshot-from-2024-02-23-11-54-58-e1708708257771.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1028\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"498\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/homepage-carousel\\\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/homepage-carousel\\\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/838be977f4b17551ad9c04956d985730\"},\"headline\":\"Dominican student makes history at US college\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-23T17:14:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/homepage-carousel\\\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":469,\"commentCount\":5,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/homepage-carousel\\\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/Screenshot-from-2024-02-23-11-54-58-e1708708257771.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Education\\\/Youth\",\"Homepage Carousel\",\"Human Interest\",\"Immigration\",\"Migration\",\"News\",\"Tourism\\\/Publicity\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/homepage-carousel\\\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/homepage-carousel\\\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/homepage-carousel\\\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\\\/\",\"name\":\"Dominican student makes history at US college - Dominica News Online\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/homepage-carousel\\\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/homepage-carousel\\\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/Screenshot-from-2024-02-23-11-54-58-e1708708257771.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-23T17:14:43+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/838be977f4b17551ad9c04956d985730\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/homepage-carousel\\\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/homepage-carousel\\\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/homepage-carousel\\\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/Screenshot-from-2024-02-23-11-54-58-e1708708257771.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/02\\\/Screenshot-from-2024-02-23-11-54-58-e1708708257771.jpg\",\"width\":1028,\"height\":498,\"caption\":\"Verena Lake\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/homepage\\\/homepage-carousel\\\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Dominican student makes history at US college\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"Dominica News Online\",\"description\":\"The most popular news site in the Commonwealth of Dominica\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/838be977f4b17551ad9c04956d985730\",\"name\":\"Admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/4b11ff91eab40baceecc540954738e081ab038af9a7180b8c43b4d0fbb743caa?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/4b11ff91eab40baceecc540954738e081ab038af9a7180b8c43b4d0fbb743caa?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/4b11ff91eab40baceecc540954738e081ab038af9a7180b8c43b4d0fbb743caa?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"Malaika\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dominicanewsonline.com\\\/news\\\/author\\\/malaika\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dominican student makes history at US college - Dominica News Online","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/homepage-carousel\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dominican student makes history at US college - Dominica News Online","og_description":"Dominican student, Verena Lake, has made history at the Penn State Wilkes-Barre campus for being the first female black student to enroll in the Surveying Engineering Program. Lake&#8217;s achievement was featured on Eyewitness News, serving Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania and...","og_url":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/homepage-carousel\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\/","og_site_name":"Dominica News Online","article_author":"Malaika","article_published_time":"2024-02-23T17:14:43+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1028,"height":498,"url":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Screenshot-from-2024-02-23-11-54-58-e1708708257771.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Admin","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Admin","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/homepage-carousel\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/homepage-carousel\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\/"},"author":{"name":"Admin","@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/838be977f4b17551ad9c04956d985730"},"headline":"Dominican student makes history at US college","datePublished":"2024-02-23T17:14:43+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/homepage-carousel\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\/"},"wordCount":469,"commentCount":5,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/homepage-carousel\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Screenshot-from-2024-02-23-11-54-58-e1708708257771.jpg","articleSection":["Education\/Youth","Homepage Carousel","Human Interest","Immigration","Migration","News","Tourism\/Publicity"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/homepage-carousel\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/homepage-carousel\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\/","url":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/homepage-carousel\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\/","name":"Dominican student makes history at US college - Dominica News Online","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/homepage-carousel\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/homepage-carousel\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Screenshot-from-2024-02-23-11-54-58-e1708708257771.jpg","datePublished":"2024-02-23T17:14:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/838be977f4b17551ad9c04956d985730"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/homepage-carousel\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/homepage-carousel\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/homepage-carousel\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Screenshot-from-2024-02-23-11-54-58-e1708708257771.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Screenshot-from-2024-02-23-11-54-58-e1708708257771.jpg","width":1028,"height":498,"caption":"Verena Lake"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/homepage-carousel\/dominican-student-makes-history-at-us-college\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Dominican student makes history at US college"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/","name":"Dominica News Online","description":"The most popular news site in the Commonwealth of Dominica","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/838be977f4b17551ad9c04956d985730","name":"Admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4b11ff91eab40baceecc540954738e081ab038af9a7180b8c43b4d0fbb743caa?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4b11ff91eab40baceecc540954738e081ab038af9a7180b8c43b4d0fbb743caa?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4b11ff91eab40baceecc540954738e081ab038af9a7180b8c43b4d0fbb743caa?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Admin"},"sameAs":["Malaika"],"url":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/author\/malaika\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Screenshot-from-2024-02-23-11-54-58-e1708708257771.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317753"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317756,"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317753\/revisions\/317756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}