Being raised in the high crime rate/poverty area of Fort Apache in the Bronx, and attending public schools, Nelly developed street smarts, a sense of diversity and a survivor attitude. Both of her parents were born and raised on farms in Puerto Rico and had limited educations. Her father had a sixth grade education and her mom only completed the third grade. Being the firstborn in a family of six to a mother that could not speak English, a dad who worked the second shift at a hotel and slept during the day, Nelly was forced to become the translator for her family and take on family leadership roles at a very early age.

Despite these early struggles, Nelly gives credit to the author of a book for helping her develop high moral values and a strong work ethic. When she was 10 years old and in fifth grade, she checked out a book from her elementary school library, that changed the course of her life. The name of the book is “ManChild in the Promised Land” authored by Claude Brown. The book was about his upbringing as a juvenile delinquent in the former high poverty/crime rate Harlem section of NYC. The book describes how he managed to turn his life around and become a successful lawyer.

Nelly read this book numerous times. It inspired her to work hard in school and to follow in Claude’s footsteps. Nelly made a decision at that time to escape her life in the ghetto and learned that higher education was the key to help her accomplish this. She decided that if Claude managed to do this, then she could also strive to find a better way of life. From that moment, she started to dream of earning a doctoral or law degree someday. In essence, Mr. Brown helped to fill in the gap regarding the small number of positive role models in her life and became a virtual mentor for her.

In June of 1978, Nelly had accomplished the first step towards getting a terminal degree. She earned a BA degree from the University of South Florida and joined the workforce. In January 1981, Nelly moved to Cape Canaveral from Ft. Myers. The purpose was twofold. She accepted a lateral job transfer offer to Brevard County and she wanted to move in with her long-time boyfriend.

During the next five years, she also started working at Cape View Elementary and Roosevelt Middle school teaching Spanish in their before and after school enrichment programs, she joined and attended Toastmasters meetings to develop effective public speaking skills and in Sept 1988, Nelly had her first son. In January 1990, she got a new job teaching a college level Spanish class at Brevard Community College. Moreover, Nelly also decided to go back to college for a masters degree. She applied for admission to the Florida Institute of Technology located in Melbourne, got admitted and started a masters degree program in Computer Science Education in Sept 1990.

During the course of parenting a two-year old son and attending FIT classes on nights when she was not teaching at BCC, Nelly soon became a master at multitasking. Shorty after earning a Masters degree from FIT in Computer Science Education in 1993, Nelly was able to transition in her college faculty job from being a part-time college Spanish instructor to a part-time instructor of Computer Science and added another son to her family in 1994. At this point, Nelly was closer to her original childhood dream of earning a doctoral or law degree, but would put this dream on hold for now.

She became a full-time college instructor of Computer Science in August 1997 and earned tenure during the 2000/2001 school year. During the 2009/2010 school year she finally climbed up to the academic rank of ‘Professor,’ which is the highest and final rank for college instructors. However, she never forgot her dream of earning a doctoral degree. Therefore, in 2010 at the age of 53 she returned to college, while working full-time and started doctoral degree coursework. In Sept of 2013 at the age of 56, she graduated with an Ed.D. (Doctor of Education) degree in International Higher Education from Northeastern University.

Shorty after her doctoral degree graduation in Boston, she thought about Claude Brown, the person whose book had inspired her to reach this goal. She did a Google search on his book. To her surprise and delight, she found out that the book, which was originally published in 1965, is still being published today. Additionally, that the book has over 175 reviews on Amazon and that some of the reviewers also claim that they read the book numerous times and state that the book changed the course of their lives. She feels that this is an example of the true power of literature. To her dismay, Nelly also found out that Mr. Claude Brown died on February 2, 2002. She would have loved meeting him to tell him how much his book influenced her life.

Currently, Nelly is a Board Member on the Florida Puerto Rican/Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and The United Third Bridge non-profit organizations where she serves as an Information Technology Specialist. Additionally, she was recently nominated/appointed by her faculty peers to chair the Computer Science/Computer Apps/Drafting/Graphics/Office Admin Faculty groups and continues to teach Computer Science at Eastern Florida State College. She just celebrated her 34th wedding anniversary on August 17th, 2019. She has two sons, ages 31 and 26. Nelly acquired her first computer in 1979 and considers herself one of the original computer geeks. She is certified as a CompTia A+, Network+ and Linux+ Professional.