Diana Costello
The Journal News

Blanca Paccha wasn't exactly met with an outpouring of encouragement when she first told her family she was thinking about going to college.

"My older brothers were saying, 'Don't go. We see what happens. There's drinking. Girls get pregnant. You're a woman - what's going to happen to you?'" said Paccha, 22. "It was hard to overcome that."

Born and raised in Ecuador, Paccha is the youngest of five children and the first ever to express an interest in higher education.

She and her family had moved to the United States in summer 1999, and though she spoke no English at the time, she quickly caught on and did well in high school. It was thanks to a guidance counselor that Paccha ever thought about going to college. The counselor helped her through the application process.

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