The story of Charles Rose’s journey from his childhood home in the Bahamas to graduating as an engineer from UNC Charlotte is one of perseverance, faith and family. And it has a happy ending.
At his graduation on Saturday May 10, Rose will be one of the student commencement speakers. And he will have a large personal group of his own cheering him on. His family has bought its airline tickets and a total of about 40 people, including some of his financial supporters, have told him they are planning to attend.
A civil engineering senior, Rose was encouraged by his mother to leave his small island and explore the rest of the world.
“When I was young, my Mom put a map of the whole world on the table before me and my sister,” Rose said. “She said ‘Find the Bahamas.’ When we did, we saw how small it was and realized there is a whole world out there.”
With his mother’s inspiration to reach beyond the Bahamas, Rose set his sights on excelling academically, so he could one day attend college in the United States.
Rose kept working hard, both in school to keep his grades up and at jobs to save money for college. He applied to a number of engineering programs in the United States. The first acceptance letter he got was from UNC Charlotte, so that’s where he decided to go. Then, he faced the challenge of raising all of the money he would need to make his dreams come true.