As a journalist, reporters have to be readily able to connect with people from all backgrounds to gather strong stories. It’s a skill that isn’t developed overnight, but it’s a skill that University of Rhode Island sophomore Gabby Chase was born with.

 

Chase, who aspires to be a journalist for NBC Nightly News, said that her nontraditional, blended family allows her to reach people on a more personal level.

 

“People assume that no one will relate to the fact that they’re from a foreign country, or they’re adopted,” Chase said, but adds that she relates to them because she’s been surrounded by it her whole life. Chase has a blended family; her mother is a Nicaraguan refugee who immigrated to the country as a teenager, and two younger stepsisters who were adopted from China as babies.

 

Chase said her family and her upbringing are a driving force in her success in school and in life. Their influence is seen in most everything she does.  

“My heritage is a really big part of me,” she said.  

 

Chase’s mother, Maria Bermudez, grew up in Granada, Nicaragua. Bermudez didn’t actually meet her parents until she was six, as they both worked in Managua, Nicaragua’s capital. She grew up thinking that her grandparents were her actual parents, Chase said, which is what she believed started the interesting family dynamic that’s reflected in Chase’s life today.

 

Chase’s grandparents parents were well off for living in a poor country. Her grandfather owned and operated a gas station, and her grandmother worked as a librarian. They died when Bermudez was just 19.

 

In 1989, Bermudez fled war-torn Nicaragua to San Francisco, where her cousin lived. She first flew to Mexico, then made arrangements with a coyote, someone who smuggles people into the United States, to get her across the Mexican border into the California. Chase said her mother described it as a “scary experience” that would be near impossible today.  

 

“She had to go through airport security just by passing through and hoping she didn't get randomly selected, which happened a lot for minorities,” Chase said. “She paid a coyote to get her a fake passport. In order to avoid suspicion, a random lady with a red rose greeted her in the airport, and they pretended to be family so they could cross together.”

 

After immigrating to the U.S., her mother made a living by cleaning houses, until she got a job at an insurance agency and met Chase’s biological father. They dated and quickly married so that she could stay in the country. Soon after, they had Gabby and her younger brother.

 

“It’s a cute story,” Chase said. “My father even learned Spanish to better communicate with my mother. But still, I’m a Green Card baby,” Chase jokes.

 

Despite their efforts to stay together, eleven years later, Chase’s parents were divorced.

As a result, Chase admits that she didn’t exactly have a happy childhood.

 

“My mom would be violent in front of me towards my dad. I think as bad as it sounds, when I have my own family, I want it to be very different than how mine was,” she said. “I’ve accepted the fact that I don’t have a mother figure. It’s sad but I’ve gotten over it. I’m so close with my dad now, it’s okay.”

 

She recognizes that her own mother’s upbringing had a lot to do with how she carried out her own marriage. Chase thinks her mother “just had a different standard as to what marriage was supposed to be like. She wouldn’t meet my father halfway when it came to raising my brother and I. He was the only one to bring us soccer practices and make sure we did our homework and didn't sit on the computer all day,” Chase said. “She was the comforting parent but he's always been more responsible, which I never appreciated until now.”

 

Shortly after their divorce, Chase’s father married her stepmother, and adopted two children from the northern and southern parts of China.

 

“I love them so much, they’re a huge part of my life,” Chase said. “They help to put things in perspective for me when they talk about their third grade issues at school. They bring me back to simpler times,” she said.

 

Even though they aren’t close, Chase keeps in touch with her mother, and said she’s learned many lessons from her about life and love. Chase’s upbringing also made her realize how she wants to act differently as she goes forward when making her own family decisions.

 

“A huge piece of advice from my mom was to get an education before you settle down with someone. She hated having to rely on my dad because he had a college education, and she didn’t,” said Chase.

 

Chase has certainly kept this in mind. “I can’t think of myself getting married and having a family [right now], not until my late twenties at least,” she said. “I’m pretty ambitious. I have a lot of goals I want to achieve before I get there.”

 

One of those goals has to do with her second major: Spanish. Chase said that her Spanish major not only pays homage to her roots, but also lets her fulfill her dream of becoming a foreign correspondent.

 

“As a kid I thought Andrea Mitchell had the coolest job in the world. I want to report on what’s going on overseas. America is a pretty self-centered country. The rest of the world is important,” said Chase.

 

The most important lesson she’s learned from her background is her empathy for other people and situations. After growing up around the stories Bermudez told Chase as a child about her diverse and sometimes challenging background, Chase said it gives her a greater sense of empathy, and helps her to better understand people from modest origins.

 

Chase said she feels cool knowing she can talk to someone who is adopted, or going through something really difficult and relay that story in a way people will understand.

 

Even though she’s a Rhode Island native, her global perspectives from her mother and sisters has helped her connect with people worldwide. “I can picture myself going into an impoverished country [as a journalist] and being able to relate to them because I have similar roots,” she said. “I get that.”