Vessela Stefanova: A winner, a friend, a success story

Vessela Stefanova first touched American soil eight years ago. Since then, she has learned English, pursued higher education, and touched the lives of those who have gotten to know her.

Stefanova has been a housekeeper in Gray Court since September 2004. Stefanova, from Pernik, Bulgaria, said the day she moved to the U.S., May 17, 2003, was distinct in her memory.

She moved to the U.S. after winning the Diversity Visa (Green Card) Lottery in 2003, she said. The lottery is authorized by Congress and allocates 55,000 permanent resident visas annually to countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S, according to travel.state.gov.

Stefanova was working at a steel mill in Bulgaria at the time and decided to enter the lottery with a few coworkers, she said.

"You send in your name, birthday, address and picture," she said. "Then the computer chooses you."

Stefanova received a package in the mail telling her she had won the lottery, she said. She debated coming to the U.S. for two months, considering she would have to leave her family and overcome the language barrier, she said.

Stefanova spent her first week in the U.S. in Connecticut and later traveled to New York. Her final move was to Richmond, where a woman from her hometown had been living for six months.

"New York was crazy and without English, you feel like 'Oh my gosh! Where am I at?'" Stefanova said.

She knew very little English at the time, but had a friend from Bulgaria who helped her communicate, she said. She instantly fell in love with Richmond, she said. "It's beautiful, she said. "There's nowhere else like this."

Stefanova has been working at the university for the past seven years and has become involved in campus life.

She is pursuing a paralegal studies degree in the School of Continuing Studies. She hopes to find a job at a law firm and to maintain a university job so she can continue to interact with students, she said.

Stefanova has been the adviser of the Horo Bulgarian Dance Club since 2005. "The club was created as a way to keep the Bulgarian students together," she said.

When Stefanova first began advising the group, there were 22 students and now there are no more than seven, she said. "This is the second year that no one has come from Bulgaria to the university," she said.

Senior Hannah Ramsey first met Stefanova in the fall of 2009 in Gray Court, she said.

After hearing her accent, Ramsey inquired where Stefanova was from and vowed to help her learn English, she said. "We made this pact that every time that I saw her I would talk to her for five minutes," Ramsey said.

"We started having these conversations and it turned into a friendship.".

The bond grew stronger after Ramsey lost her brother and found consolation in Stefanova, she said. "She was the one person that would come to me and ask, 'How are you doing?'" Ramsey said.

Ramsey hopes students do not let social status or language barriers stop them from meeting new people and building friendships as strong as she and Stefanova's, she said. "There are people on this campus that can change your life," she said.

Robert Plymale, grants accounting manager at the university, met Stefanova in the fall of 2007 during an income tax preparation class offered by SCS. Plymale, who has worked in facilities for 18 years, first spoke with Stefanova when he told her about a job opening on campus.

"Not only did she learn English and start her education again, but she became a citizen," he said. "She is going to do some great things for the university."

Contact reporter Laila Hart at laila.hart@richmond.edu