Over winter break, eight students and two professors from Waynesburg University’ went to Bonaire for a week to help at Trans World Radio. While on the trip, the group decided to have a “Waynesburg Wednesday” in which they all wore Waynesburg University shirts for a group picture.

That day, during the group’s lunch break, they all went to buy souvenirs. That is when 41-year-old Fernando Nava saw part of the group from Waynesburg. The students and one chaperone didn’t know it at the time, but Nava actually went to Waynesburg College in 2001 for his MBA.

“I was driving to pick up some cargo from our shipping agent and I saw the burnt orange shirt and they said Waynesburg on them and I couldn’t believe it,” said Nava.

Nava grew up in a middle-class family in Venezuela where he attended a school that taught English and also had opportunities for scholarships and studying abroad.

“They always had information for us about scholarships and colleges abroad,” said Nava. “So, they basically pointed at me one day and said that I had a possibility to go so I sent my letter and sent everything else that I could and I got in.”

Nava had always dreamed about studying abroad, but he never knew thought it was ever going to become a reality for him.

“To me, getting a scholarship abroad was a huge dream,” said Nava. “I remember visualizing myself in a college in the U.S. and the location I visualized before I even knew anything about Waynesburg was some sort of a grassy park and when I got to Waynesburg I went to the park and it was exactly like the place I visualized in my head.”

Nava was the first ever Venezuelan to receive the R.J. and Rita Morris Scholarship which paid for him to be able to come to what was then Waynesburg College for a year.

“To this day I still treasure the college,” said Nava. “I remember my dad when he graduated [and] got a scholarship to Ohio University and when it came to my brothers I was considered the academic one. When it came [time] for me to go to college I, at first, had no scholarship. So, my parents said they would pay, but I didn’t feel ok with that. So, when I received the scholarship I was happy about it because I could follow in my father’s footsteps.”

Nava left from Maracaibo, Venezuela, a city that, at the time, was approximately three million people with an average temperature of 95 degrees to arrive in Pennsylvania on Jan. 3, 2001 where it was small and cold.

“I have traveled before, but in this case, it was different because when you go for a week in the summer, which I have done to New York and San Francisco, you go to big places in the big cities,” said Nava. “When I was in Waynesburg though it was small and it made it feel way more real to me. You could get used to the streets and see someone every day waving and I fell in love with the feeling of a small town.”

For his MBA program Nava started studying political science and then switched over to business management. He says he has a pretty firm understanding of both majors. Nava said that he always did well in school back in Venezuela, but the MBA program at Waynesburg was a whole new level of education for him.

“When I got to Waynesburg I got involved in everything that I could,” said Nava “I was supposed to take 12 classes for the MBA, I took 13. In all of my MBA level classes I got straight A’s because, for me, it was such an honor to be there for me that I couldn’t see myself getting any kind of grade but the best.”

Nava remembers that during his time at Waynesburg there was an earthquake in El Salvador. So, Nava decided to start up a food drive for the country. That eventually got him elected as President of the Foreign Students Organization. Another thing that Nava said he remembered during his time at Waynesburg College was September 11, 2001.

“I remember very distinctively waking up to 12 missed phone calls from back home and was wondering why they called me,” said Nava. “I turned on the TV and reality hit, I went to the plaza between all of the buildings and everyone was standing there, because that is what you do. You want to see other people. I will never forget this, a local girl came to me and said ‘How are you? Are you scared? Are you afraid?’ It was insane because I came from Venezuela we had tragedy’s like this every year with death tolls of basically amounting to five to seven 9/11’s every single year. So, for me I was not that scared, but the fact that someone that had the event happen in their homeland came to me a Foreigner and asked if I was ok it was a whole new dimension of humanity for me.”

A couple of years after finishing his MBA at Waynesburg, Nava became a college professor in Venezuela. Then around 2006 things started to change in the country for Nava.

“In 2006 Hugo Chavez was on his second term and he started using certain words in his inaugural speech which told me where he was going,” said Nava. “There was no division of power, no accountability, it was ‘his way or the highway’ and since I studied political science for a bit I knew what was about to happen. I fell in love with Canada and was going to go there, but my sister lives here in Bonaire. She told me about a job opening as a translator.”

Nava and his family have been living in Bonaire for six years now he and he loves knowing that his daughters will have a good life on the island.

Nava has also made friends too on the island including a group of friends that he is currently making a board game with about Lion fish hunting on the island.

Nava says that none of this would be possible for him and his family if it wasn’t for the Morris family giving him the opportunity to come to Waynesburg College to get his MBA in 2001.

“I am immensely grateful to the Morris family and to Waynesburg,” said Nava. “A lot of people, when they go to a small place like Waynesburg, they feel like they are missing out on some stuff. To me though, you actually find out what really matters to you. You don’t need two million plus people around you to feel happy; you can have maybe 10 to 20 people around you and be happy. For such a small place, you get so much out of it. So, I guess it’s only small in size not in experience.”