Twelve years ago, Stacy Olivier was in her native South Africa applying for a visa to come to the United States; but just when things seemed in the clear, September 11, 2001 happened. She said “It took six years to get a visa after that.” Olivier later found herself in Flint by virtue of her mother’s marriage to a Flint native.
To Stacy, coming to America meant giving her daughter more opportunities, but the very thing she wanted for her daughter eluded Stacy for quite some time. “I struggled to find work,” she said. “After a while, someone from my church hired me as a nanny, and I liked what I did, but one day my daughter looked at me and said, ‘Mommy, I want to be a nanny like you when I grow up.’ I enrolled at the Mott the next day. I thought, ‘I didn’t move my life for you to become a nanny.”
Stacy became a nanny by day and a student by night. While she found her work fulfilling, she needed employment that would build her résumé and afford her time to take classes during the day. She soon met the Dean of Science and Math, Dr. Johanna Brown, who offered her a job in the Math Empowerment Center at Mott the following fall semester.
The job at Mott opened the floodgates for Stacy. “It drove me to do more on campus,” she said.” She became president of student government, and considers her last year at Mott to be the organization’s “most successful year to date.” Stacy said she “went from being the shy South African to an active student.”
This past spring, Stacy graduated from Mott with an Associate of Science in Psychology and a 3.9 G.P.A. She was a student of the honors program and is a member of the International Honor Society Phi Theta Kappa. She also received the Paul Karr Award, an accolade described by Mott Community College as one awarded “to the graduate chosen to represent the class as its best citizen on the basis of scholarship, character, and service.” Stacy has been accepted to Michigan State University where she plans to continue study in psychology and eventually attend law school.
Stacy talks highly of her daughter’s academic performance, but says she would never have imagined that she would become her academic role model. “I think being a nerd is becoming popular again,” she laughed. Ever the watchful nanny, she keeps a careful eye on her daughter and volunteers as a soccer coach for the American Youth Soccer Organization. “If my daughter is outside playing, you will see me out on the porch, and you will not see my child on the news; she will not be stolen. I love kids. When I’m with the girls playing soccer, people say you can’t hug kids, but I hug them; some need to be hugged more than others at times.”
The poignant life perspectives Stacy detailed to My City Magazine might provoke even the most dedicated worker to question his own work ethic. She said she knows that calling America “the land of opportunity” has become cliché, but that it means everything to her. “It breaks my heart to see students sitting in class who don’t care. There is no excuse to fail in America.” She mentioned that some look down on student jobs, but that she is thankful for what others call “crappy student work.” She is also thankful to be able to study, since the opportunity to further one’s education in South Africa is not afforded to many. “My friends in South Africa are happy for me. Many of them graduate high school and don’t go on to college. Public school is not that good there and even public school is very expensive.”
Coming from South Africa and going to Lansing to continue her education does not place Flint out of the picture for Stacy. In fact, she imagines returning to Flint in the future. “I love Flint,” she said. “There is a diversity of people. I think Flint has lots of potential to grow.”
It’s been said that the immigration factor is often a motivator for one to succeed in a foreign land since “The average person of the average country doesn’t get up and leave and go to some other country.” Stacy sites family as her motivation and she came here to offer her daughter a better life. Natives of Flint might find it hard to believe that of all the places to live in America, a migrant chose this place, and thinks the world of it. It would be nice to see more of Flint’s own take more pride in their hometown, and take greater advantage of the opportunities therein. Whatever motivates Stacy Olivier is important to note, because her example should motivate Flint.
