This week on Mom to Mom, an impressive South Florida teen is helping her peers prepare for college.
17-year-old Yohanna Machado is in her senior year of high school and runs a program called All Culture Connect, to help students who come from immigrant families manage the American education system.
“I offer tutoring. Most of my clients are very young. The oldest is in eighth grade and I help with counseling for college. I give a bunch of advice on how to be a competitive student for colleges. Basically, I give a one on one about the American education system here,” said Yohanna Machado.
As a first generation Brazilian-American student, Yohanna told Local 10′s Nicole Perez, All Culture Connect was inspired by her own struggles and difficulties.
“For the counseling services it was based off my personal experience with my panic, when it came to college. My parents were born and raised in Brazil. They had no idea how everything worked here and in turn neither did I. So, when I went to high school, I realized I was really behind everyone talking about doing extracurriculars and classes. I quickly realized I had no idea what I was supposed to do,” said Yohanna Machado.
She offers her program in English, Russian, Portuguese and Spanish. Her sessions are done via Zoom for one hour and they are completely free.
She said her motivation behind it all is her parents.
“I feel like it was definitely based on my parents. My dad never really finished school. He had to work. My mom finished school in Brazil. So, they had no idea how to help me when we came here. We would listen to audio books of college admissions in the car on the way to places and I want to pass that along to people,” said Yohanna Machado.
Two of her clients are sisters, 9-year-old Bettina Fonseca and 16-year-old Maria Fonseca. They were born in Brazil and have lived in South Florida for the last seven years.
The sisters agree the sessions with Yohanna have helped them with their confidence and they are learning about what to do to get attention from colleges.
“I’ve done two counseling sessions with her, and they’ve helped me a lot already with scholarships and bright futures. I’m learning what I can do,” said Maria Fonseca.
“She helped me a lot. Now I can do better in fourth grade,” said Bettina Fonseca.
Yohanna lives a busy life. She volunteers, plays the piano and has many extracurricular activities. But has said all of the help she gives to others is rewarding.
“The most rewarding part is having families understand when it comes to counseling. They understand what path they need to go on, because I know what it feels like to not know what to do or at the end of your path say I should have done all these things. I like when they realize, ok this should be my path, this makes me happy,” said Yohanna Machado.
Nicole spoke Mom to Mom with Yohanna’s mother, Joana, who shared a little about what life has been like for their family immigrating to the United States from Brazil.
“It’s very hard because we had no family here. To start a family with no help, my mom couldn’t get a visa to come here for years so we had no one here,” said Joana Machado.
But the family persevered and made sure Yohanna got a good education.
“The sacrifice about schools is that we didn’t know the system. I had to switch her schools a lot of times. I didn’t agree with some schools. I didn’t think it was the best fit for her and it was hard, but now I think we got it right,” said Joana Machado.
But in the end, Joana said it was all worth it.
“I’m very proud. We are very proud my husband and I. We think it’s the best thing ever. It was worth all the hard work and all the things I did for her. I took her to so many sports competitions and after school programs it was hard, but it was worth it,” said Joana Machado.
Yohanna told Nicole she does not know where she wants to go to college yet but does know that she wants to be a doctor.
Yohanna said anyone who needs help with college preparation can reach out to her on Instagram @allcultureconnect or for more information, they can visit her webpage.
If you would like to highlight a mom who makes a difference in our community, send us an email at MomToMom@wplg.com.