Immigrated to a few blocks away from where you mentioned, also from Ukraine, in 1995. Both parents attempted taking similar courses. Mom stuck it out while cleaning houses during the daytime, Dad realized it wasn't for him but also struggled between jobs.
My mom turned sixty this year and last I spoke to her today at 10:30pm, was busy at work, trying to finish deploying a new release at the office. She's been a COBOL engineer (yeah..) with a hectic schedule for the last fifteen years.
Not sure where I'm going with this, but from bringing today's Google Doodle to her attention, to reading and clearly heavily related to this, to seeing Derek's post on life on the front page, I think I should call my parents and thank them again for moving our family into the unknown and trying to make it through herculean efforts.