Tarrin D'Aniello

Meet Tarrin: A mother working hard for her dreams

Tarrin is a Trinidad and Tobago native who came to the US as a teenager. She came to BCC after she had her three children and decided to follow her dreams. "I felt that BCC was the best thing for me while raising my children and it could be my stepping stone to the next college level I needed to get to." Tarrin Transferred from BCC in 2019 and is now a current Pre-Med/Health student at Smith College in Northampton, where she is part of the Katz Biological Research Lab and a biology mentor. She is currently working on her special studies, Epigenetics in Ciliates, and plans to do further research in the field of Epigenetics and attend medical school. Tarrin feels strongly about the ever-present biases in the health care system and the need to create change on all levels: "I would love to change the world and make all this talk about black and white go away but unfortunately that's not the reality. In the health care system, there is still a lot of biases. Even as far as the books I read for my biology and science classes. There aren't figures for black skin in those books. For example, there are images for rashes on white skin, but I don't know how it would look on black skin. I think we need to change the text books and literature first, that can help us in the future."

At BCC she especially remembers her history professor. She took World History after 1500 with Prof. June Tooley. One of the things that stood out for her in one of June's classes was a story about Queen Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba: "Queen Nzinga was standing in front of these men who wouldn't give her a seat. She made a servant go down on their knees and she sat on that servant to make a chair for herself. I remember June going down on all fours in the classroom to show us exactly how the servant went down for the Queen to sit on him. And June told a student to be the queen and sit on her! I remember this very clearly because at that time it was so powerful for Queen Nzinga to stand in front of that room full of men as the only woman and take back her power 'if you won't give me the seat, I will make my own seat!'" Tarrin has wonderful memories of her time at BCC and the people she met there. "BCC is a small community, but a very diverse small community. I have been around so many people from different walks of life, I formed friendships with both students and faculty. I have great memories of Frank Schickor, Gina Foley, June Tooley and Tom Carry. The level of education I got at BCC was really good. Most people will think of a community college level of education as not that high but I feel that BCC really prepared me for Smith College. I felt like everyone at BCC, every faculty member that I encountered was great and helped me in every aspect that I needed."

While at BCC, she was inducted into Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. "That day stands in my mind as if it happened yesterday. I remember the moment I'm walking up to get inducted and it was so emotional because in that moment, I realized that my journey at BCC was coming to an end. BCC is a family to me, near and dear to my heart. I got very emotional that day but I knew I had to move on." Tarrin transferred from BCC directly to Smith College with the help of our transfer coordinator Geoff Tabor. "He is amazing. I would encourage everyone who needs to transfer out of BCC: Geoff Tabor is your man! He set you in the right direction. He gave you the right contacts that you needed depending on the school that you will go to. My transfer process was seamless and couldn't have gone better."

Don't be afraid to back to school. Even if it's one course at a time to fulfill your goals and your dreams and your aspirations. Don't be afraid!