Katrina Babinec

Student

“Ahoj to SMC from Slovakia!”

The above greeting, which is pronounced “ahoy!” in English, was offered by Katarina Babinec, who was in her first semester at SMC. “It’s really quite a long story how I ended up here from Slovakia, which was part of the former Czechoslovakia,” says Katarina. “But the short version is that I moved to Florida first, and then to Los Angeles because I got married. But I wanted to get my feet on the ground here in a college,” she continues. “And I was lucky to meet a woman who was a professor at Cal State Northridge. She told me that of all the community colleges, SMC was the best. And I’m grateful to her for making this suggestion.”

Katarina says that “the best things about SMC are its location and the people who come here. I do miss my friends and family back home, but I’m meeting all kinds of new friends here, too.” In polishing up her English skills, Katarina found her way to an SMC ally in the classroom. “My English teacher, Ms. Faye is so wonderful. She’s always positive, full of energy, and outgoing,” she says. “She is one teacher who makes a lot of us very glad to be studying together.”

Katarina says that she’s noticed a lot of changes in herself since starting at SMC. “I’m very much more responsible now, and much more ready to study,” she says. “I would like to make my career in Interior Design, and work with architects to make houses beautiful. Ever since I was a little girl, I was always doing something to make the house look more creative and appealing. So I hope that someday someone will want to actually pay me for doing what I love.”

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