ABSTRACT
In Jasmine's story, we encounter a young immigrant's effort to negotiate the conflicts between her responsibilities at school and at home as she tried to reconcile demands and pressures she felt within her family and community. Jasmine, a responsive, attentive, and eager young woman who wanted to “get a head start” toward realizing her ambitions, displayed exemplary grit and determination in the face of overwhelming odds. Jasmine's family immigrated to Canada from Sri Lanka when she was 13. At 19, already married (at her parents’ insistence), she became responsible (as the eldest) for helping to financially support her mother and two younger sisters after her parents divorced. Compounding matters were Jasmine's divorce in less than a year because of abuse and thousands of dollars in debt. But having been sold—particularly by her mother—on the idea of the importance of education for opening up opportunities for success in Canadian society, Jasmine sought to obtain a university education that would benefit not only her and her family but also the broader Sri Lankan community. Unfortunately, we lost touch with Jasmine after the Bridging program.
