Naugatuck Valley Community College hosted Eastern Connecticut State University (ECSU) President and Board of Regents Vice President for State Universities Dr. Elsa Núñez on November 30 to discuss her latest book, Hanging Out and Hanging On: From the Projects to the Campus with students from NVCC’s Workforce Achievers Value Education (WAVE) program and A.I. Prince Technical High School. Núñez was accompanied by Board of Regents for Higher Education Interim Provost and Senior Vice President Estela López, Ph.D., an expert in Spanish literature, who has served NVCC as interim dean of academic affairs and associate dean of institutional effectiveness.

NVCC President Daisy Cocco De Filippis, Ph.D. greeted Núñez and López and thanked them for their generosity of spirit and for their support of NVCC students. “I am very, very pleased to welcome this wonderful book conversation,” she said.

In the memoir, Núñez relates her own struggles and successes to those of students enrolled in the Dual College Enrollment Program (DCEP) at ECSU, which was created to help underprivileged students realize the dream of higher education. She recounts the struggles of growing up in poverty and as a non-English-speaking elementary school student and her triumphs in high school and college.

Through the personal accounts of six DCEP students and the words of faculty and staff who supported them along the way, Núñez relays to readers vivid stories of despair, and triumph in the face of adversity. “And that’s really the story that the students tell you—how they got to college,” she said. “And, the way they got there was not a straight route, but a very, very challenging route—but they got there and they succeeded.”

Núñez recounted the feeling of helplessness she experienced as an elementary school student in Newark, New Jersey when she was placed at a desk away from other students because she did not speak English. She overcame that barrier with perseverance and hard work and excelled in high school—even attending on days when she was sick because she did not want to miss an opportunity to learn. Núñez said part of that drive came from her father, who insisted that education was the only way to change one’s circumstances.

“There was no one who could tell me I wasn’t going to succeed. And I think that’s part of what happens with young people. Sometimes you get one disappointment and you think that’s it, or two disappointments,” Núñez said. “Life is full of disappointments and barriers; you just have to get up the next morning and say ‘tomorrow I’m going to do better on the next test’ or ‘tomorrow I’m going to see a counselor’ or ‘tomorrow I’m going to study harder.’ Whatever it is, you have the power to turn it around.”

For aspiring writers, Núñez offered this advice: “Don’t just write, rewrite. If you produce something … and you finish it and you think that it’s good, you’re joking,” she said. “Because nothing comes out good the first time. Good writing is good rewriting.” Núñez revealed for her book, it took a dozen revisions to get it right.