Scholar Stories
“This Is Only the Beginning”
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Cradle-2-Graduation StoriesCareer
This is only the beginning!
Briem Cole
Borrego Springs High School 2023 · Certified heavy equipment operator
Briem Cole learned what he wanted to do for a living by watching it. His father and his grandfather ran equipment on construction jobs, and he grew up on the side of that work, looking at the machines.
He moved to the United States from Jamaica six years ago, attended Borrego Springs High School, and graduated in 2023. The plan from childhood was trade school, training, and a heavy equipment operator’s certification. He is careful, in his own account, not to make that sound smooth: there were setbacks, and then he finished.
- Imagination Library
- Family Literacy
- TK Academy
- Learning Academy
- Scholarship, completed
- Certified, completed
A BASIC scholarship does not have to end at a university. It ends wherever the training does.
Not every scholarship buys a lecture hall
BASIC awards two kinds of scholarship. A start-school award goes to a Borrego Springs High School graduate heading to a vocational program or a two- or four-year college. A stay-in-school award goes to those who keep going, toward a certificate or a degree. The vocational half of that sentence does real work: a certification is a career, and the fees are just as difficult to find as tuition.
What the money bought Briem was the training itself, and with it the licence to operate the machines he had been looking at since he was a child.
I am so thankful and grateful that even in such a small town like Borrego, we have such a great program like BASIC available to us.Briem Cole
In his own words
When I was a child, I used to watch my dad and grandpa run equipment on construction jobs. Since then it has been my dream to attend trade school, complete training, and receive my Heavy Equipment Operator certification. After a few setbacks, I finally accomplished that goal.
I am so appreciative to BASIC for putting their trust in me. This is only the beginning. Now that I have my certificate I can start the process of pursuing my lifelong dream career.
Thank you again so much for believing in me.
Briem Cole
More graduates, in their own words: BASIC Salutes Its Graduates.
Someone in Borrego Springs paid for that certificate
Trade training, community college, a four-year degree, a master’s. BASIC has funded all of them, every year since 1998.