By JANE LaTOUR

One student aspires to teach. The other is considering a career as an obstetrician. Each young woman has excelled in an environment created by loving and proud union parents.

Dahlia Raymond is the daughter of Dept. of Education Employees Local 372 member Hadriana Raymond. After she graduates from Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics on June 25, Dahlia plans to attend Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

Jacqueline May Youn Min Kahan is the daughter of Social Service Employees Union Local 371 members Marilyn and Michael Kahan. After her graduation from The Beacon School in Manhattan, she plans to attend Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.

Student essays
Both were among this year’s 10 winners of the four-year, $2,000-a-year AFSCME Family Scholarships offered by DC 37’s national union. Students competing for the national scholarships were asked to write essays about what union membership has meant for their families. Dahlia Raymond wrote about growing up in Brooklyn’s Kingsborough Projects and the struggles of her parents, immigrants from St. Lucia, to support their three children.

When Dahlia was a high school freshman, her mother got a job as a School Aide and joined Local 372. “I realized that there were major benefits,” she wrote. “My father was able to buy drugs to lower his cholesterol and was able to buy the glasses he needed. My mother was able to go to the dentist and get her teeth fixed. My sister qualified for scholarships, and we all benefited from the medical insurance.”

Union benefits
Jackie Kahan’s essay described the many ways that union membership has made a difference to her family. As social workers at the Clinton Welfare Center in Brooklyn, Marilyn and Michael met and married. They adopted Jackie and her sister, Yvette, from Korea.

Jackie wrote: “Because of severe medical problems, each of my parents had to retire earlier than they had planned. Thanks to the good retirement plan to which they belonged, each retired with a full pension. Due to a union-negotiated early retirement incentive, we were able to continue our previous lifestyle with our health and welfare benefits intact. Thankfully all of my father’s health needs at present are covered by union negotiated benefits.”

Now Dahlia, Jackie and their families are benefiting once again from union membership. Writing the essay strengthened the “personal connection for my parents and for me as well,” said Jackie. Marilyn Kahan sees her daughter as a wonderful combination of a teenager and a young adult. “She’s such a diverse kind of kid,” she explained.

“She’s just engaged in life.” Hadriana Raymond is also proud of her daughter. “My husband and I didn’t have the opportunity to go to college. Dahlia is a high achiever and she doesn’t settle for less. This will be money well invested.”

As they pursue their dreams on distant college campuses, both young women are seeking new challenges. Jackie Kahan, already fluent in French, is studying Spanish. “I love languages,” she explained. “I really want to work in education administration and on policy issues, but I want to gain lots of experience in the classroom by teaching languages.”

Plans for the future
Dahlia Raymond is considering a pre-med course with a major in psychology. “I also want to write a book,” said the avid young reader. Currently she’s completing a statistics project about girls’ and boys’ scores on the college entrance math test. “I’ve excelled at math, but I’m more of a history and English person. I also like certain aspects of biology,” she explained.