By Evelyn Fisher
CCC Journalism Program
BLACKWOOD – Camden County resident JM Kadawa, 21, has been in the United States for about four years. JM came over from the Philippines for a better education and a better life.
She is enrolled at Camden County College and entering her fourth semester. She has earned herself a job in the computer lab being a lab assistant, which she says she likes because she can be hands on with computers and help people who don’t grasp the concepts of some of the programs.
After Camden County she wants to attend Rutgers University in the upcoming fall for computer science. There she hopes to get her bachelor’s degree. JM says, “Camden County helped expand my knowledge in computers and helped put me in the right directions for universities after here.”
Jm speaks three languages – Philippine, English and Visayan, which is broken words and phrases. Asked how she began speaking Visayan, JM says, “I learned by living with people who spoke this language all the time, and I wanted to know what they were saying.” But English and Pilipino came a little more naturally for her.
She says she misses the weather her home lands brings, because it’s mostly sunny and warm, but the United States has more diversity to offer and more people to meet.
JM has been in the U.S. for some time now, but still not all her family is here. She has four brothers and sisters but one of her brothers is still in the Philippines. She misses him but has gotten used to him not being around.
Transformation was an easy thing for JM, because she is used to moving around. When she first came, the hardest thing for her was not being able to see her best friends she grew up with every day.
The food was also an easy thing for her to accept, because she says she eats everything. The foods are a little different because their hot dogs have a sweet taste, but the hot dogs in the United States are more salty. One of her favorite things here is the fruit, because it has a fresher taste.