CFK Keys Currents-2020-21

Community Ties
A Family Tradition
From the left: Antonio Cardenas,
Emelia Gutierrez Fernandez, Irene
Fernandez-Cardenas, Isa Cardenas,
Bill Cardenas, and Emi Cardenas.
Opportunities. Opportunities to learn.
Opportunities to grow. Opportunities to achieve.
Opportunities to give back.
F
or the Fernandez-Cardenas family,
The College of the Florida Keys has
opened the doors of opportunity for two
generations, established a family tradition,
and set pathways to home-grown success.
Between them, the proud Conch family
has earned seven CFK diplomas
and counting.
The matriarch of the family, Irene, an
Operating Room Nurse at Lower Keys
Medical Center (LKMC), earned an
Associate in Arts and an Associate in
Science in Nursing from CFK in 1985. She
went on to Florida International University
to earn a bachelor’s degree in nursing before
returning to Key West. Together with
husband Bill, a retired Army Ranger and
Paratrooper who now leads Section 8 for
the Key West Housing Authority, raised
three children: Emi, Antonio, and Isa.
“For us, this College is very important
to our family story,” said Irene. “My mom
came from Cuba in 1958. She does not
know how to read or write and never had
the opportunity to go to college.” Despite
her lack of formal schooling, Irene’s
mother and “Abuela” of the family, Emelia
Gutierrez Fernandez, was passionate about
her daughter’s education. “She encouraged
me to attend CFK and now we have done
the same with our children.”
Oldest daughter, Emi, gives credit to
her mother and grandmother for instilling
the importance of higher education.
“I started taking college classes while I
was a junior at Key West High School
through the dual enrollment program.
I really liked the teachers and decided
that I wanted to keep going and earn my
degree at CFK.”
Emi’s younger siblings, Antonio and Isa,
joined her at CFK a year later. They too got
their first taste of college through the dual
enrollment program, which provides
a tuition-free jump start to college for
Monroe County high school students.
Together, the three Cardenas students were
a force to be reckoned with on campus.
Highly engaged and high-achieving, the
three supported and motivated each other
with just the right amount of sibling rivalry.
All were Student Ambassadors, Student
Government Association officers, and
earners of multiple scholarships.
Emi earned an Associate in Arts followed
by an Emergency Medical Technician
diploma in 2017. That was not the end for
Emi, though. Following in her mother’s
footsteps, Emi then earned an associate
degree in nursing at CFK this spring and
embarked on a nursing career at LKMC
shortly thereafter. In August, she began
CFK’s bachelor’s in Nursing and continues
to be involved on campus.
Antonio earned his Associate in Arts
in 2018 and Isa earned hers in 2019. Both
transferred to Florida Gulf Coast University,
where they are studying finance. They still
drop by campus for a round of “hellos”
whenever they are visiting home and intend
to return to the island permanently someday.
“We wanted to have our kids to have
a sense of community. They could get
their education here, work here, and build
their lives here,” said their father Bill
Cardenas. “Having them at home while
they took classes gave them time to mature
and helped us immensely to afford their
education. They will complete nearly
debt-free and prepared to give back to the
community.”
“It’s a perfect little place to grow our little
Conchs,” adds Irene. “CFK is family to us.”
30 KEYS CURRENTS A PUBLICATION OF THE COLLEGE OF THE FLORIDA KEYS
A PUBLICATION OF THE COLLEGE OF THE FLORIDA KEYS KEYS CURRENTS 31