Bergen Community College

Bergen Community College student Jacqueline Caraballo is studying exercise science to become an athletic trainer. 

Caraballo, of Hawthorne, chose Bergen because of its affordability and location. “Bergen has provided me with plenty of opportunities to help explore my future career and be able to network and set myself up well for the future,” she said.

Caraballo currently plays on Bergen’s women’s basketball team. She feels that out of all the sports she played throughout her life, basketball was the one that stuck. “I never would have been able to make relationships or even discover wanting to become an athletic trainer if it wasn’t for me becoming a student-athlete here at Bergen,” said Caraballo.

Throughout her Bergen journey, Caraballo received immense support from Bergen Athletics, especially athletic trainer and coordinator Samantha Pletsch and athletic equipment coordinator Deana Fletcher. “They have supported me since I first met them at Bergen and without them, I would have never opened up and gotten close with everyone in the Athletic Department and I wouldn’t have been inspired to become an athletic trainer,” said Caraballo.

Caraballo is also Bergen’s Student Athlete Advisory Committee’s (SAAC) treasurer. “I am very passionate about improving the quality of sports and the treatment of the athletes at Bergen along with the athletic department,” she said. Caraballo also said she became treasurer to have a bigger role with SAAC and because she is good with numbers.

Caraballo expects to graduate in 2025.

Based in Paramus, Bergen Community College (www.bergen.edu), a public two-year coeducational college, enrolls more than 13,000 students at locations in Paramus, the Philip Ciarco Jr. Learning Center in Hackensack and Bergen Community College at the Meadowlands in Lyndhurst. The College offers associate degree, certificate and continuing education programs in a variety of fields. More students graduate from Bergen than any other community college in the state.

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