Yosef, Josh, Joel and Aaron Escobar are not your typical college students.
Three of them started college after they were 25. Raised by parents, who fled communist Cuba in 1994 seeking political asylum, they were raised in poverty in Hialeah Gardens and had to get jobs at a young age to help support the family.
Attending college was an afterthought for the four brothers who were homeschooled.
“I never thought college was for us…I saw higher education as something that’s for rich kids,” said 33-year-old Aaron. “I was envious of other kids who go to prom and have this vibrant social life and have extracurriculars. I didn’t have any of that.”
But in 2022, Aaron hatched a plan to change all that. He pitched his brothers the idea of attending Miami Dade College—together.
A year later, the quartet completed their GED at West Campus and they enrolled for their first semester at MDC in August of 2024.
“It was just so different from what I had been doing before,” said 24-year-old Yosef. “I had never been in an official classroom and then I’m suddenly going to college.”
Despite their difficulties, their background gave them strength and influenced them to study diverse career paths.
Aaron and Yosef were both interested in computers.
Yosef, who earned a reputation for tinkering with technology and being the family’s “tech support” guy, is a computer information systems major in the Honors College at Wolfson Campus.
Aaron is pursuing a computer science degree after years of using the family’s “shoddy computer” as a guinea pig to explore computer programming. He aspires to work on video games in the future.
“Just the idea that I can create narratives that can really influence people…video games are the epitome of art and science,” Aaron said.
Joel is fascinated with the minds of fictional characters. That passion partly stems from an indie film the brothers worked on, The Illustrator. The movie, which takes place in a fictional post-apocalyptic Miami, features their sister Yadira Escobar and is directed by Aaron. It was released in 2020.
Working on the project helped the 29-year-old realize he was not only interested in how the minds of fictional characters worked, but real people’s minds as well.
He is a psychology major and part of the Wolves in Training Honors College program at Wolfson Campus that offers new students a mentor to help them navigate the challenges of college.
The fourth brother, Josh, originally decided to study film, television and digital production but, fueled by his family’s background in politics, the 27-year-old switched to political science.
His older sister, Yadira, ran in 2020 to represent Florida’s 25th Congressional District in the U.S. House. He currently serves as a senator in the Student Government Association at Wolfson Campus.
Now the brothers are set to graduate together from MDC on April 25 at loanDepot park.
“I admire their tenacity and their drive—their willingness to be involved in the Honors College and the College altogether,” said Daphnee Gilles, a professor in the World Language Department and an Honors College faculty member.
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