“Monroe makes you feel welcome, and I’m happy about that. They helped me get back to studying because it had been so long since I was in school.”
Growing up on the Caribbean island of Dominica, Arade Moses was naturally influenced by the bouyon style of music popular in his native country. When he left high school in 2006, he toured the islands as a drummer, then later moved into music production.
He and his band were successful, but a force of nature called Hurricane Erica upended his business. “We lost all our equipment and the band dissolved. I was able to play small gigs with my brother, but the business was gone.”
Arade had always been interested in information technology, and recalled that a representative from Monroe had once visited his high school and talked about the IT program. He decided it was time to make a change and head to New York.
“I had to get accustomed to the cold, but it feels like home now,” he laughs. “Monroe makes you feel welcome, and I’m happy about that. I needed help in the beginning to get back to studying because it had been so long since I was in school. So far, the experience has been great!” He expects to graduate in 2023.
Moses still plays music in his free time, and has joined the IT club. Through the club, he’s learned new programming languages, and he sees it as a networking opportunity as well. “I believe that getting to know different people of different backgrounds will help me get to where I want to be in the future,” he says. For Arade, “the future” means becoming a network engineer and taking his skill set back to Dominica.
