Unabia Excels with GGC Community Support

UNABIA EXCELS

WITH GGC COMMUNITY SUPPORT

Le Quang Greatzel Unabia grew up in Digos City on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. She lived with her mother, grandmother and aunt – so she didn’t have to look far to see first-hand how strong women can be. Her mother would get up at 3 a.m. and ride her tricycle into town to buy two baskets of pastries she would sell at a local market. On a good day she would earn a little more than two dollars. But despite such hardships, her mother believed that her daughter would be great, so she named her “Greatzel.” With the support of her family, Unabia studied psychology in college for three years in the Philippines, but didn’t do well.

“GGC FOSTERS A COMPASSIONATE STUDENT COMMUNITY, AND I AM PROUD TO SAY THAT I AM A PRODUCT OF THAT COMMUNITY.”

“I REALIZED GREATNESS IS NOT A PERSON – IT’S AN ACTION.

FOR ME, GGC BECAME A CATALYST FOR THAT ACTION.”

“I just did enough to pass,” she said. “I never worked hard because I didn’t see any hope of changing our lives.” In 2016, Unabia decided to attend college in the U.S., moving in with her father in Norcross, Georgia. A family friend suggested she visit Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC). “He said it might be easier to adjust on a smaller campus, where it wouldn’t be so overwhelming for me,” she said. “Looking back, I know he was right,” she said. She enrolled at GGC as an information technology (IT) major Attending college in a foreign country filled Unabia with self-doubt, but her classmates and teachers at GGC rallied around her and proved it to be the perfect choice. For example, when she was a sophomore, her car broke down and fellow students gave her rides for the rest of the academic year. “GGC fosters a compassionate student community, and I am proud to say that I am a product of that community. I was only able to continue college because of my GGC friends,” she said. The community continued supporting her. When faculty noticed she was attending IT-related events alone, they suggested she join the Women in Technology (WIT) registered student organization. Unabia struggled with coding and decided to drop out of GGC. However, she still attended a WIT boot camp event for which she had registered – and it became a turning point. “Dr. Evelyn Brannock taught an amazing session that showed me I could overcome my struggles with coding,” she said. Then Penny Collins, president and CEO of the Atlanta-based WIT organization, told Unabia how she started her career as a receptionist and worked her way up within the IT industry. “This inspired me because I realized that if she could do it, so could I,” said Unabia, who was encouraged to re-enroll at GGC by Dr. Hyesung Park. “WIT really empowered me. I didn’t think I could do software development, but WIT showed me that maybe it was possible,” said Unabia. As a result of all of the encouragement, she changed her IT concentration to software development to challenge herself. Unabia flourished, becoming a student leader in GGC’s WIT chapter, being accepted into a Research Experience for

Greatzel Unabia (upper right) volunteers at a 2021 Grizzlyfest activity table.

Undergraduates at Indiana University – Bloomington about climate research, and co-authoring a cybersecurity presentation for the 2020 International Conference on Data Privacy and Information Protection that appeared in the "International Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering". She also won a $12,500 WIT scholarship and a $5,000 Cognizant Pathway to Technology Scholarship. This support enabled her to focus more on her studies and switch from a part-time grocery job to a campus job as a peer supplemental instructor. “I was once ready to give up on myself,” she said. “But my GGC family would not give up on me.” A December 2021 graduate, Unabia plans to become a software engineer and later “pay it forward” to tomorrow’s students as a teacher or college professor. “I grew up in the hands of strong women,” she said. “But it took me time to figure out that I’m one of them myself. I realized greatness is not a person – it’s an action. For me, GGC became a catalyst for that action. For somebody like me, that was very important. GGC was the right place for me.”