Beatriz Lopez, Health Care Assistant

Watch Beatriz’s full “I Choose Possible” story

Born in El Salvador, Beatriz and her mother moved to Canada when she was 16, where they didn’t know anyone and were unaccustomed to the local culture. Like any major shift in life, this transition to a new country was not easy for either of them. As an only child in a struggling family, Beatriz saw the challenges her mother endured to provide for their family.

“I cannot imagine all the struggles, efforts, and sleepless nights my mother went through putting ourselves here in a different country,” she says.

As time passed by, Beatriz’s mother’s declining health prevented her from continuing to work – this shifted the pressure to Beatriz to fulfill the role of family provider. The struggle to provide grew more challenging when she became a young parent at the age of 21 to a baby girl. Days and nights were tiring while managing a full-time job, caretaking an ailing mother, and raising a child at the same time.

Beatriz remembers a particular “day travelling to work: [She] was mentally and physically tired – working hard and coming back home to care for [her] mother and daughter, who were both wonderful but with health challenges.”

Beatriz told herself that “this can’t be life – [she has] to make that change, [she has] to go back to school. This is the only way [she] can succeed.”

So, to pursue a better life for her family, Beatriz went back to school and studied health care at Sprott Shaw College. While studying here, she was inspired because classroom sizes were small and catered to her individual learning style – which is exactly what she was looking for in her education.

Post-graduation from Sprott Shaw, Beatriz secured the career she aspired for and is now fulfilling and sharing her passion – offering her time and dedication to people in need.

Today, Beatriz’s “life is different. Now, [she] smiles more. And [she’s] still providing [her] passion, dedication, and time to people in need because that’s what makes [her] happy.”