By Blake Hamill '02

Ten years ago Victor Cancel '02 did not speak a word of English, had not heard of Colby College and knew little if anything about the state of Maine. "For me, Maine was almost as 'foreign' as Canada," he recalls.

That was 1992. Cancel, his mother and younger sister, Jessica, had left their home in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, and settled in Lawrence, Mass. Lawrence is a gritty former mill town with drugs, gangs and one of the highest crime rates in Massachusetts-plenty of pitfalls for an immigrant teenager, plenty of influences that could lower his expectations.

But Cancel, as he adjusted to his new life in America, came up with a plan: he would work hard enough to go to college, and not just any college. He would work hard enough to attend a prestigious college in the United States.

An unrealistic goal? Not for Cancel, whose drive to lift himself out of poverty began even before he moved to Lawrence.

Life in Puerto Rico was not easy, he says. Family life was fractured by divorce and constant moving from house to house. Few things were stable, with the exception of weekend visits to his grandparents' house, where his grandfather offered advice and had a great and lasting impact on him. "I've always had a tremendous amount of respect for him," Cancel said. "He is incredibly generous, urging me to stay in school so that I can have choices when I get a job."

It was advice that served Cancel well.

In Lawrence he enrolled in a bilingual school with other Spanish speakers. "It was tough in the beginning," he said. "Speaking [English] was easy to pick up, but reading and writing were a big issue. I dedicated a lot of time to studying."

He worked hard from September until June, and then he worked more, winning scholarships to summer schools where he could continue to improve his English.

At Lawrence High School, where only half of the incoming freshmen graduate, Cancel's progress was a shining example of what a student with drive can do. He attributes his success to hard work-and to his ability to block out the constant tension and negative energy he found at school. By the time he graduated in 1998, six years after coming to the U.S., he had advanced into accelerated courses. Cancel was one of 30 students in his graduating class of 300 to go on to college.

At Colby, Cancel kept right on pushing.

His heavy course load includes a double major in Spanish and international studies and a minor in anthropology. Debra Barbezat, associate professor of economics, taught Cancel in an introductory economics class and remembers him as "funny, very positive and a hard worker. He would come into my office all the time and work until he got it right," she said.

Roommate Rashad Randolph '02 calls Cancel "the king of all-nighters." One night, Randolph said, "Victor just never came home. He'd fallen asleep in the Lovejoy computer lab and spent the night there."

Yet for all of Cancel's focus on his course work, he is constantly planning and setting long-term goals. When asked what he hopes to pursue after college, he responded, "Too much."

"I want to do something that has some kind of personal attachment. More people should have the opportunities I've had, and maybe through government I'd be able to make a difference."

What does Cancel do to unwind? He tends to hang with international students. And, in his free time, he's started writing his autobiography. "I've kept journals all my life, documenting things that I've done, and saved a lot of e-mails and letters from important moments in my life," he said. He intends to organize about 300 and title the memoir "300 Days of Sunshine."

There are sure to be more sunny days ahead. Cancel is looking forward to graduation; it will be the first time his mother and sisters see Colby. With 20 guests coming from as far away as Puerto Rico, his graduation has become a big deal for the family.

What's planned for the event? Cancel laughed: "The joke around my family is that I'm going to have a whole cheerleading team, with flags, to yell when my name is called." Given what Cancel has accomplished, a little yelling may be in order.