Vladimir Andral

“A promise I made to myself is that I would always look back at the transformation that I went through and let myself know that change is always possible and that I can endure.”

Seattle Promise Alumnus
Associate in Computer Science DTA/MRP graduate, North Seattle College
Roosevelt High School graduate

ABOUT VLADIMIR

If Vladimir Andral could describe Seattle Promise in one word, it would be “lifeline.” The program opened the door for him to continue his education and find his footing academically thanks to the guidance of the program’s dedicated retention specialist team.

However, his North Seattle College journey wasn’t an easy one. Andral faced an early setback of losing his Seattle Promise scholarship after his first two quarters. He was forced to rectify old habits that dated back to high school, as well as appreciate the opportunity he lost once he started to fund his own way through college. When Seattle Promise offered him a path back into the program, he worked diligently to ace his coursework to be reinstated. Looking back, that experience isn’t a negative one for Vlad. He sees it as a necessary transformation that Seattle Promise enabled.

Andral is now in the next step of his college education by pursuing his bachelor’s degree in computer engineering at the University of Washington Bothell. He attests to North Seattle College’s rigor in preparing him for upper-level coursework at a large research university. He hopes to use his education funded through Seattle Promise on projects that make the world a more just and equitable place.

IN THEIR WORDS

On the privilege of getting to focus on school:

“When I first started the Seattle Promise program, I wasn’t very focused on what I wanted to do, where I wanted to go in my future. I reached a point where I recognized that these habits I have won’t bear any good fruit or so to speak. I actually lost my Seattle Promise scholarship the first time and so then I had to work a lot more. That’s when I realized the importance of being able to be a full-time student and focus on my studies.

“I started taking classes again and I did much better in these classes. They had this program where you could reinstate if you previously lost a scholarship and so I was able to get that back. Because I was working less, I could focus on my studies more. Because I could focus on my studies, I could actually take time to understand what I was learning rather than just to take time to memorize and complete a test. I had a deeper love for what I was doing.”

On Seattle Promise’s Advisors:

“They were not shy about asking how courses were going if something was tough and what we needed to help. I remember there was a quarter where I missed two assignments, and I already got an email talking about how they could support me.

On Seattle Promise’s impact:

“The Seattle Promise program to me is understanding that people like me – who have a harder time picking up their feet academically speaking – that there is hope for them to show their colors and be able to thrive in an academic setting. Again, I’ll say it, I didn’t do well in my first two quarters, yet here I am talking about having a full understanding of my coursework.

I stand as one example of people who can truly come to appreciate the program and put the funding into use. I recognize this money isn’t free, that this is coming from the hard-earned money of people living in Seattle. I want those people to know that your money was not wasted. If I stand as one example, then there’s certainly many others out there. So, it is worth investing because you will see the returns, maybe not now, but later.

On choosing Seattle Promise over other options:

Math is math everywhere. Physics is physics everywhere. To gain a knowledge base to be able to contribute to your community or whatever industry you’re looking for, you really don’t need to be at the MIT’s, at the Harvard's, at the Yale’s because I’m learning the same content that they are. It’s not about being at some name brand, it’s all about what your values are and what you plan to be contributing to for the rest of your life.

On the rigor of North Seattle’s education:

“All of [my professors] have been very clear that they are here to prepare us for a university setting, to give us better study habits and goals and how to prepare for a challenging field. Even in my writing classes, they were still very big on the understanding of the content that we’re writing.

“There are a lot of courses where I’m very glad I took them at a two-year institution level because I have a much better understanding of the course content. I still read my notes in my upper-level coursework at UW Bothell just because I think they did a very excellent job at being thorough in their job.”

On their post-graduation aspirations:

“A lot of my career goals and post-grad life inspiration comes from a lot of the wisdom that both my professors and other classmates who used to work in industry [had], and a lot of it is understanding that are you living to work or working to live? And so, hearing countless conversations I’ve had with people who have worked in industry and understanding that even if they worked for Microsoft, it’s not about just having the name, it’s about what you’re doing.

“One of the first courses I took at University of Washington Bothell was about disability rights and education. That class really helped me open my eyes to understand I should be doing this for all these people who struggle intellectually or physically in one way or another. I’d like to use the talents that I have to help others and make the world that I live in a better place so that we can all live in a world where we all feel valued and that we can all pursue the same level of experiences that people like you and me have had.

“I would rather use my skills for something like biomedical instrumentation. Maybe prosthetics to make them more responsive to how the human brain interacts with [them]. Or working with power systems in third-world countries, because [with] power distribution, we take a lot of it for granted in these first-world countries, but for them it may literally be a generator running an entire town.