GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — "I honestly can't wait to make a someone's dream come true, you know, and make more stories like mine happen honestly," Nain Miranda Duarte told FOX 17.
He's a young man looking to give back after someone made his dreams come true. A recent Calvin University graduate, who's originally from Nicaragua, wants others to find academic success.
"I see every challenge also as an opportunity, as an opportunity to learn, as an opportunity to grow," Miranda Duarte said. "My parents, at some point, had a tire shop, so we would help with that, whatever it was, moving tires around and doing stuff like that. Some other point, my dad had a smoothie shop, and I helped make smoothies."
His parents did not make much. Nain describes where he lived as slums, with his family often surviving on $50 a month.
"I had one pair of shoes. And that's it. That was, and all my clothes were literally passed down from my older brothers," he added.
Still, his parents did what they could to give him and his four brothers a better life. The five boys were Nicaragua Christian Academy International students, a private school near his home.
"We owed $1,200. The bill had accumulated quite a bit. And we literally, the school said, I mean, you can't go any further," he said.
An anonymous donor stepped in to keep his educational dreams alive.
"I'm just so thankful," he said.
Then at 17, Nain was in the United States visiting his brother when he got a call from his mom.
"The first words my mom says, you are not coming back home," Miranda Duarte said.
In 2018, protests broke out in Nicaragua, with people asking for their president to step down. Nain says his cousin was a victim of the government crackdown.
"Your cousin was just shot and killed by the police this morning. And we found them on the side of the road of a whole different city," Miranda Duarte said, describing what his mother told him.
Nain, listening to his mom, stayed here in the U.S. and ultimately pursued higher education at Calvin University.
"Essentially, I got a full ride to Calvin. I mean, the only thing that I had to pay was for my own room and board. So and yeah, and then I became an RA later on, which paid for that room and board," he said.
Nain eventually ran successfully for student body president. After learning the value of a dollar, he pursued a career in accounting, which helped land him a successful job out of college.
"I'll be joining Ernst and Young in July. And I'm pretty excited about that. I'll be joining as a technology risk consultant," Nain said. "Now I'm very blessed. I mean, I'm still thrifty. I'm very thrifty. I like to save. But now I probably have, like, I like shoes. Now because of that. I think I probably have, like, 10."
While he says he does want to one day buy a home for his parents, so they can live here in the United States, he also says he's ready to start donating once he's settled in his new job.
