A Passport, Ten Euros, and a Dream
Janet Cuni arrived in Europe carrying little more than a passport, ten euros, and the belief that somewhere beyond the life she was leaving, something different might be possible.
She had grown up in Cuba, where systemic discrimination and political repression shaped both her opportunities and her understanding of what it meant to have choices. Eventually, staying no longer felt like an option.
Leaving, however, did not mean she knew what would come next.
“I disembarked in a remote European port with only 10 Euros in cash, my passport, and a one-way ticket to Havana.”
What followed was not a simple story of escape followed by opportunity. Janet found herself navigating life as an undocumented immigrant in Europe during the Great Recession, confronting uncertainty about where she belonged and what kind of future she could build.
She learned to survive in unfamiliar systems and circumstances, often without the networks, resources, or guidance that make those systems easier to navigate.
Eventually, her journey brought her to the United States, where education became part of something much larger than earning a credential. It became a way to understand the systems that had shaped her own life—and to gain the knowledge and tools to help others navigate them.
But entering higher education meant learning another unfamiliar system.
Like many adult learners, Janet did not arrive with a roadmap. Educators and mentors helped her understand educational and professional pathways that were new to her. Their guidance mattered because information alone is not always enough. Sometimes people need someone who can help them see how the pieces fit together and imagine where a path might lead.
Janet continued forward, eventually pursuing law school and building a life centered on justice, educational access, and expanding opportunity for others.
Her experiences gave her an understanding of education that extends well beyond individual advancement. She knows what it feels like to encounter systems whose rules are difficult to understand, whose pathways are not always visible, and whose opportunities can feel inaccessible to those without someone to help them navigate.
Her own path has been anything but predictable. It has crossed countries, cultures, institutions, and identities. There were times when the distance between where she was and where she hoped to go must have seemed enormous.
Janet learned not to measure that distance all at once.
“Sometimes that first step is simply believing that change is possible.”
That philosophy has carried her through each stage of her journey. Progress did not require knowing exactly how the entire story would unfold. It required taking the next step, seeking help when she needed it, and continuing toward something she believed could be different.
Her advice to others comes from that lived experience:
“No matter how difficult your circumstances may seem, there is always a way forward.”
Janet’s story reminds us that educational journeys do not begin at enrollment. Learners arrive carrying everything that came before: the places they have lived, the systems they have navigated, the uncertainty they have survived, and the knowledge they have gained along the way.
Sometimes those experiences can make the path through higher education more complicated.
They can also become the very experiences that give an education its purpose.
Janet could not have known where her journey would lead when she stepped off that boat with ten euros and a passport.
She only knew she had to keep moving.
And sometimes, that is enough to begin.
Janet Cuni is one of fifty adult learners featured in Beyond the Degree: Stories of Adult Learner Comebacks and What They Teach Us. Read her complete story in her own words, and discover what these remarkable comebacks teach us, in the book from the Center for Academic Innovation.