Читать книгу Westward. Encounters with Swiss American Women онлайн

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Rosa wanted to stay in America. “The country took me in. No one said that because you are a woman, you can’t do this or that.

The decision to continue my academic education brought me significant personal and professional gains. Of course, I could have earned good money as a secretary. But I was fascinated by the academic world. It is also important that each person furthers his or her own personal and intellectual development. In Switzerland I would have had to take all the courses to pass the Matura [the final exam that garantuees students entrance to university studies] in order to be allowed to engage in academic studies.”

From 1961 to 1967 Rosa buckled down to work and studies without interruption. “From 9 to 5 I worked in the office, in the evening I was at school.” Her hard work paid off. In 1966 she earned a Bachelor of Science from Columbia University, in the same year she became an American citizen, and a year later she earned a Masters in Economics and a bit later a Masters in Education. “It was hard. I don’t know how I did it. How I envied the people who were able to go home at 5 p.m. while I was taking the subway to attend lectures. I am very ambitious and had the feeling that I could only advance if I earned an American degree.”