An article in Chapter One of Becoming Master Student describes some qualities of a master student--for example, being willing to change, to risk, to participate, to be uncomfortable, and to work hard. Veronica Mastny (marriage changed her last name) lifted these qualities off the page and used them to overcome numerous obstacles.

After leaving Mexico with her family to settle in the United States, Mastny immediately faced one of those obstacles--language. When she entered high school in suburban Chicago, she spoke no English. She took on the task of learning her high school subjects and a new language at the same time.

Finding support helped her succeed. In her senior year she joined a high school organization for Hispanic students. There she found Spanish-speaking friends, tutors in English and other subjects, and people to help her plan for further education.

Lack of family support created another obstacle. Mastny wanted to enroll at Prairie State College, a school close to home. When she asked her parents about paying for tuition, their response was simple: "In our situation, we don't even have money to pay off the bills. We cannot afford to pay for your education." Mastny understood this and made no demands that her family contribute financially to her education. At the same time, she felt angry about her parents' attitude: "They don't think of education as a good thing. They said: If you finish high school, that's fine; if you don't that's fine, too. It's better that you work." For Mastny, entering higher education would mean going against the grain of her family traditions.

At first, Mastny planned to stay at home after graduating from high school and help with household chores. That plan changed with a call from the organization for Hispanic students: Mastny could apply for a scholarship to attend Prairie State. Someone from the organization would help her file the forms and write the required essay. Mastny accepted the offer.

The plan worked. Mastny got a letter announcing that the scholarship was hers. "I couldn't believe it," she recalls. "The scholarship was really good--a four-year scholarship, two years for Prairie State and two years for Governors State University in University Park, Illinois."

After celebrating the news, Mastny realized she faced another obstacle--adapting to the world of higher education. She had money to pay for tuition but no idea how to enroll for classes or what to expect of campus life.

This time Mastny got support from a counselor at Prairie State. "She showed me every single detail about the school and how to register," Mastny says. "She said, You have to learn about the world. You have to see how these things work. Then you can help your kids do the same. That was on a Wednesday, and on the next Monday I was in my first class. Everything happened so fast."

One of Mastny's first classes was a freshman orientation course with Becoming a Master Student as the assigned text. She rates several of the ideas she encountered in that course--especially suggestions for time management and relating to instructors--as crucial to her success.

Velton Lacefield, the course instructor, guided Mastny to solve another problem. Mastny's scholarship covered tuition but left nothing to pay for books. One day Lacefield passed out a flyer to the class describing a scholarship offered by Houghton Mifflin Student Success Programs. This scholarship application also required an essay, and this time the stated topic was "What is a master student?"

"The counselor at Prairie State said, you write it [the essay] and I will help you fix your grammar (which was really bad at that time)," Mastny says. "So I took the chance."

The choice paid off. Besides helping her win the Houghton Mifflin scholarship and pay for her books, Mastny's essay became the basis for her profile in Chapter One of Becoming a Master Student.

As of this writing, Mastny is a junior at Governors State University. She attends school part-time and plans a career in computer science. Mastny encourages anyone who immigrates to the United States to "learn the system"--how things work in a new country. "When you go to school, they just tell you about your subjects, like history or math. But they don't show you how things work around you. It's a totally new world for you. Know the rules and the laws."

In the essay that won her the scholarship from Houghton Mifflin, Mastny wrote that a master student "chooses to make numerous sacrifices in order to follow his/her vision of 'being somebody someday.'" These students might face "sleepless nights, long exhausting days, going against the grain, and even going it alone. . . . without the support of the most important people in their life."

However, if you persist you can eventually find support, says Mastny. This is essential. "You cannot do anything without somebody else's help. You always need somebody to push you through things. You always need somebody to help you go through the system. I don't think people can succeed by themselves." Mastny adds one more thing: "You can do it."