Devoted mother makes move for children, quality of life
Michal Sarang Schmoisman’s international quest to find peace brings her to Bay Area
Christian Urrutia / The Advocate
Early childhood education major Michal Sarang Schmoisman thoughtfully works on a painting during her Art 124 class in A-6B on Feb. 19. Schmoisman immigrated to the United States to pursue a better life for herself and her children.
March 18, 2015
The United States is seen to people in many parts of the world as the land of opportunity.
Many people leave behind their homes and everything they have ever known to embark on a journey in hopes of not only improving their lives but the people who they love.
This dream is exactly what led Michal Sarang Schmoisman to leave her home in Israel for Sao Paulo, Brazil and ultimately to Orinda, California to start her new life.
Schmoisman commutes to Contra Costa College to take classes to earn a degree in early childhood education while working in the Skills Center as a tutor for statistics and business.
“Changes are not a problem,” she said. “I believe in the concept that this is a small world and one should not be intimidated by drastic changes.”
The biggest challenge she faces, along with many other immigrants, is learning a new language.
While English is her second language, she embraces the challenge and does not let this obstacle limit her from excelling academically.
Her speech professor Joseph Carver said every time she speaks up in class she is taking steps toward understanding the English language while boosting her confidence.
“Sometimes during class you can see (Schmoisman) thinking through her thoughts,” Carver said. “You can feel her energy as she pushes through the language barrier. She takes a couple of seconds but she completes the thought instead of getting stuck and giving up.”
International Education Coordinator Sui-Fen Liao said she recalls how Schmoisman scheduled to meet with her and get to know the school before her classes were even set to begin.
“She is disciplined,” Liao said. “She knows what she wants and she’s aiming for it.”
In the upcoming year, Schmoisman said she plans to work at a job off-campus that is directly related to her major.
Liao said that CCC was the best option for her or anyone else moving to the Bay Area from another country.
Schmoisman said her journey to the Bay Area began when a friend of hers in Israel introduced her to an Argentinian man whom she married and moved back to his country of origin in South America.
While living in Argentina for a short while they set up a business accessorizing the licensing of brands.
However, they could not remain there for long because of the economic crisis of 2000 so they decided to relocate their family and business to Brazil.
Upon arriving in another country, she fell in love with the natural beauty of Brazil and its wonders, but this new setting led to unimagined troubles for her family.
It turns out that Sao Paulo is a city riddled with violence — to the point where she said she was worried about the well being of her three children.
“They were afraid to walk the streets,” Schmoisman said. “I did not feel comfortable letting them even go outside.”
There was the constant risk of being assaulted. She was living proof of that having been robbed many times. She recalls how her youngest son would cling to her when walking through the streets.
Knowing that she wanted to give her children a better, safer life and not deprive them of a positive childhood, she decided on setting a new course for them.
Schmoisman decided to test her chances with a new life, all over again, in the Bay Area.
She managed to acquire a student visa and made the move, leaving her husband behind because he said he wanted to maintain the business. She said her life has changed for the best.
After recently arriving to Orinda, her youngest son would often ask, “There are no thieves here right? No one will get me?” She said she is now relieved over the fact that she can tell her children that they are safe.
The welcoming people and support that she has encountered has allowed her to continue succeeding in everything she does.
She said she chose to live in Orinda so that her son could attend Miramonte High School. The school has a high performing water polo team, which her son is very passionate about.
Having many reasons she can use to become discouraged or hopeless, Schmoisman has found a way to view her bad experiences as a doorway to new opportunities.
She said she is sure that her three children will thrive more in the Bay Area than anywhere else. She has a 14-year-old girl, 17-year-old son and her youngest son is in the first grade.
For now she is taking classes that work toward her major but she has enough time to also be able to take a class involving her favorite hobby — painting.
“Apart from being easygoing and friendly,” Liao said. “(Schmoisman) is open-minded and enjoys diversity.”
In the future she said she hopes to get her teaching certificate while trying to sell her artwork, which she is creating in class, on the side.
She said it is possible she will open up her own business in the U.S.
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Alex T. Barak • May 5, 2015 at 7:04 am
“Thank you American Taxpayer” is the title you should ascribed to your recent interview of the 48 year old undergraduate student Michal Schomissman in the Contra Costa College student newspaper. Bad journalism, a la the recent Rolling Stone Magazine fiasco, was a close second.
Your piece failed to explain how Ms. Schmoissman is supporting herself and her three children in San Francisco, while she studies early child education. She’s on an F-1 student visa and cannot legally work. So, how does she do it? Why no examination of this key question by your student reporter?
As for the three children she dragged to the United States, how do you suppose they feel about living in a strange country without their father? Why not ask the interviewer to ask?
Ms. Schmoissman said she wants to open a business in the United States. That’s fine – but why is she studying early childhood education? And by the way, do you suppose she disclosed this to the American Consulate in Sao Paulo when she applied for a student visa? Prove me wrong, but I’m guessing she did not, because her application would have surely been denied.
Aren’t non-immigrant student visa applicants supposed to demonstrate an intent to return to their country of residence outside of the United States? Ms. Schmoissman, as your article demonstrates, clearly had no such intent. She fled Brazil to pursue opportunities not available to her, allegedly, in any of the countries in which she has lived, including her native Israel.
Glad to hear her son is pursuing his passion: water polo. That’s what water-parched California needs. And by the way, Sao Paolo Brazil is no more dangerous than Oakland California or for that matter, Baltimore, Maryland.
Jan Monsell • May 5, 2015 at 6:54 am
I totally disagree with the way the article values this person. In my opinion a devoted mother is the one who prioritizes her children needs’ over her own ambitions. In this case, this woman, places as a priority the intellectual knowledge over the psychics of her children. She just took off, and took the kids away from their father. She doesn’t care about their feelings, let alone about the feelings of the kids’ father.
Is that what defines a “devoted mother”? Of course not!
Intellectual knowledge is important. But when a child is 6 years old, it is more important to be next to his both parents: mother and father, since they are both alive. As far as the other two kids she has, the teenagers, they also are in a critical period in life where they need the father figure.
Taking these kids away from their father is what it is called a moral crime. In the present time the damage may not be noticeable but it will certain leave long-lasting wounds.
I was asking myself, how does this woman and children eat, and live? What about there incomes? Who is supporting this family?You have mentioned that she is not working, am I correct? They livewith the money of the father of her kids. That’s obvious.It is obvious that for this person, money and knowledge are the prime values that a person has. Integrity, honesty and sensibility, three main characteristics of a decent human being are not in her calculative agenda.
Since learning is a life-long process, there is no need to rush, and go against the natural stages in life where we accumulate and learn different subjects. Each stage builds-into another within time. When a natural process is altered, manipulated, and twisted then negative and long-term implications appear.
It is heart-breaking and annoying to see that a women with no respect for the father of her kids, the one who financially and emotionally supports them all, is being praised in a ridiculous way.
Moreover, this individual appealed to the excuse of Brazilian insecurity level as the main reason to run away with her 3 children. What about other Brazilian women? Are they all running away to golden California? How are the other 200 million Brazilians facing this “risk”? That would be a challenge for the author to find out.
This person is and ambitious woman with no ethic values. Therefore, she cannot be defined as a devoted mother. She is being a mother with evil attitudes.
Indira Mahal • May 1, 2015 at 7:05 am
I don’t think the attitude of this person is worth praising at all, as it appears in this article. An unhealthy and ambitious lifestyle is not ethical, let alone take the children away from their father.
Letting the children growing up next to their father is what a good person and a real devoted mother would do.