We Just Had our First Teen Get Her License!

Photo by Lanre Olabinjo

Driving to Success continues to break barriers for New Americans in Fargo-Moorhead. In this update, we share a key milestone—our first teen participant to earn her license—and recognize the partners helping make stories like this possible.

Why This Matters

At the Immigrant Development Center, our Driving to Success program offers driver’s education and behind-the-wheel training to New Americans in the Fargo-Moorhead area. We developed this initiative to address barriers that often prevent individuals from obtaining their driver’s licenses, including language differences, limited scheduling options, and the lack of culturally responsive instruction. We recently marked a major milestone: our first teen participant received her driver’s license immediately after completing training. Stacy, a 17-year-old high school student from Cameroon, joined the program at age 16 and completed it after turning 17.

Photo by Lanre Olabinjo

Stacy’s Story

Stacy arrived in the United States a year ago with her mother and younger sister. Transportation was one of the major challenges they faced as a family. In her own words:

“My mom had to leave work just to drive us around,” she said. “Now I can take my sister to school and be more independent. It’s helped me be more productive, and I feel proud of myself.”

Now licensed, Stacy is preparing to begin college in the fall of 2025 and is exploring job opportunities to support her family.

“Now that I have my license, I want to find a job and see how I can contribute to society. I am also able to help my mum out and I’m really grateful to IDC and the sponsors for giving me this opportunity.”

We extend our heartfelt thanks to our program sponsors—Essentia Health and Sanford Health. With your support, we’ve been able to run multiple rounds of driver training, removing barriers to mobility and unlocking opportunities for families like Stacy’s.

What’s Next

We remain committed to expanding mobility access for more New Americans. For more on Driving to Success or how to support the next cohort, contact us at contact@immigrantdevelopmentcenter.org or click the link here to get on the waitlist for the next cohort.