Le Quang Greatzel Unabia, 26, of Norcross, grew up in Digos City on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. She was raised in a home of women – just her and her mother, grandmother and aunt – so she didn’t have to look far to see first-hand how strong a woman can be.
Unabia
Unabia will join more than 600 of her classmates at Georgia Gwinnett College’s fall commencement, scheduled for 10 a.m., December 7 (today) at the Gas South Arena.
It was a hard-scrabble life at times for the four women. Her father was a Vietnamese refugee who moved to America when Unabia was 10, leaving her mother, Annaliza, to largely make ends meet on her own. She would wake up at 3 a.m. and drive her tricycle into town to buy two baskets of bibingka – a sweet pastry made with coconut and flour – which she would take to the local marketplace to sell. On a good day she would earn a little more than two dollars, but that was enough.
“It showed me what women are capable of,” said Unabia. “Seeing how hard my mom worked just to get me through high school.” Unabia graduated from high school, charged right into college in the Philippines and spent three years studying psychology.
That trajectory changed dramatically in 2016, when Unabia realized she could study in the U.S. as a permanent resident thanks to her dad, but she’d have to do it before she turned 21.
She moved in with her father and set about finding a college that fit her personality and ambition. She looked at larger schools, but their sheer size seemed daunting. A family friend suggested she look at Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC).
Unabia’s life changed courses once again when GGC advisors noticed she was attending STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) events by herself and suggested she join the Women in Technology (WIT) club. “WIT really empowered me,” she said. “I didn’t think I could do software development, but WIT showed me that maybe it was possible. I decided to give it a go — so I could prove to myself again that I am capable of doing things I previously thought I couldn’t.”
She will graduate with a Bachelor of Science in information technology with a concentration in software development. For the next chapter, she hopes to find work as a back-end developer.
That’s not bad for a woman who was raised on a little more than two hard-earned dollars a day.
Gravina is new chairman of board of PCOM
Gravina
Thomas J. Gravina of Haverford, Pa. has been named as the next chairman of Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine’s (PCOM) Board of Trustees. A member of the board since 2003 and vice chairman since 2015, Gravina is the fourth board chair to serve in this singular role in the institution’s history. He will succeed chairman John P. Kearney, who served as chairman since 2014, and will remain on the board as vice chairman through 2022. The college is headquartered in Philadelphia, Penn. and has campuses there, and in Suwanee and in Moultrie, Ga. In Philadelphia, it has 1,742 students; 1,127 in Suwanee; and 192 in Moultrie, in several disciplines.
Gravina is currently executive chairman of Evolve IP, a company he co-founded in 2006. Evolve IP is a cloud technology company, serving commercial clients in the U.S. and various other countries around the world. There are 19 members of the PCOM board.
Three Georgians, Wayne Sikes of Snellville, David McClesky of Hoschton and Tim Burgess of Athens serve on the board.
Burgess, Sikes and McClesky
County to provide warming stations when temps under 35
Gwinnett County will open warming stations for residents to receive temporary, overnight relief from long-term exposure to frigid temperatures of 35 degrees and below. The warming stations will be available from 6 p.m. until 7 a.m. Residents who visit the sites can warm up, eat a meal and get some rest.
The County will announce the availability of the warming stations at GwinnettCounty.com and to local media outlets. The locations are listed below:
- Best Friend Park Gym, 6224 Jimmy Carter Boulevard, Norcross,
(Bus route 35, stop 407 and 906); - Buford Senior Center, 2755 Sawnee Avenue, Buford,
(Bus route 101 I-985, stop 19);
- Centerville Senior Center, 3075 Bethany Church Road, Snellville;
- Lawrenceville Senior Center, 225 Benson Street, Lawrenceville,
(Bus route 40, stop 836 and 337); and - Shorty Howell Park Activity Building, 2750 Pleasant Hill Road, Duluth,
(Bus route 10B, stop 542 and 108). - To get more information on warming stations or to volunteer, call 770-822-8850.
Good Samaritan names 5 Good Neighbor award winners
Good Samaritan Health Centers of Gwinnett recently announced five winners of its third annual Good Neighbor Awards this month. They are:
- Jill Edwards of Duluth, incoming chair of Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce;
- Ann Patrick of Peachtree Corners, caseworker at St. Vincent de Paul charity;
- Kati Tait of Snellville who has helped foster children by opening up her home to them;
- Sherwin Levinson of Lawrenceville, the volunteer executive director of the Medical Reserve Corps Georgia East Metro;
- The non-profit is the Medical Reserve Corps Georgia East Metro; during the pandemic, more than 1,300 of their volunteers provided more than 17,000 hours primarily helping with testing and vaccinations, which would be worth more than $700,000.
Foundation awards grants to agencies serving Gwinnett
The Jackson EMC Foundation board of directors awarded $74,705 in grants during its November meeting, including $30,000 to agencies serving Gwinnett County.
- $15,000 to For Her Glory, a Gainesville agency that provides breast cancer patients throughout the Jackson EMC service area with items that are not covered by insurance, such as wigs, bras, compression sleeves, gloves, and nutritional supplements.
- $15,000 to Nothing But the Truth, Inc., a Dacula faith-based organization dedicated to meeting needs in the community, to purchase food for the Weekend Food Bag Program that provides food for the weekend to Gwinnett County public school children who have been identified by counselors as food insecure.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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