Our Stories

Sina had always wanted to be a nurse, but the mother of two in her mid-thirties thought there were too many obstacles in her way to realize that dream. With the encouragement of her husband, resources accessed through Sister Carmen Community Center (SCCC), and her sheer determination, Sina recently graduated from an accelerated program at CU Anschutz with a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing (BSN) and is now working as a Registered Nurse in the emergency department of a local hospital.

Charlie was born in China in the early 1980s. In college, she worked part-time as a tour guide. That’s where she met her husband, who was visiting China from the United States at the time. They married in 2006. After college, Charlie’s career in international business was taking off following China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). But her husband was a research scientist with limited opportunity in China, so he wanted to move back to the U.S. They settled in Colorado in 2007.

One person can make a huge impact. Sister Carmen Community Center (SCCC) is living proof of that! Fifty-five years ago, Sister Carmen Ptacnik, a Catholic nun from California, arrived in Colorado to assess the needs of the people of Lafayette. Six years later, she returned to California, but her humanitarian efforts inspired community members to start a local non-religious nonprofit in her name. Today, SCCC carries on the legacy of one woman who saw the needs of the people here and helped in any way she could.

Originally from Pennsylvania, Ben moved to Colorado in the early 2000s. Before marijuana was legal here, Ben was arrested for cultivating it and spent 13 months in a Boulder County jail. It was there that he saw Sister Carmen Community Center (SCCC) Parenting Class Coordinator Ginny for the first time. She worked in the adjacent women’s jail then, and Ben would sometimes see her outside or in the hallways. In 2017, they finally met at a Bible study at their church in Lafayette.

In the spring of 2022, Claudia’s mother-in-law was killed by guerrilla terrorists in Colombia for being a feminist leader who provided information to the government and police. There is no record of her murder, and her body was never recovered. Shortly after, Claudia’s family started receiving death threats. She and her husband moved with their son to another part of Colombia, where they hoped they would be safe, but the death threats followed them.

When 8-year-old Bernardo emigrated from Mexico to the US with his family in 1993, he quickly learned English and became the sole interpreter for his parents. As the youngest member of his family, he saw translating as his way to thank his parents for the sacrifices they made to give their children a better life. At almost 40, he’s still giving back wherever he sees a need in his community. And he married a partner, also from Mexico, with just as strong a sense of obligation, perhaps even more so!