What’s your major and how’d you end up at LBCC?
My major is Human Development Family Studies. First, this is my third time around. I have settled on this major. I joined LBCC back in 2011. I wanted to go into nursing and then I had kids. I didn’t finish the nursing degree, but I came back and wanted to be a medical assistant. But in that, I was teaching some students and tutoring them, and I wanted to expand more on how much I could bring to students. So then I decided to change my major again into education or teaching. With that, I had another child, so my priorities were to find a job and be able to raise my kids. I worked for a while as an educational assistant. I realized it wasn’t for me.
I mean, I’m patient and I’m loving, but I just felt like I could be challenged a little bit more. So then, I found a job with Benton County as a health navigator. It’s like social work as well as working as a community health worker. That was when I was like, “This is something I’m really, really passionate about.” I said to myself, “I promise this is it. I won’t change majors anymore.” So, I spent two and a half years there, and I was sitting in my office one day, during the pandemic. I was like, “Okay. You know what? I have the hang of this, but I just feel like I need more of a challenge or a push.” And so I thought I should just go to school. Do I see myself in the same position five years from now, 10 years from now?
I’m not complaining about that, but I just felt like I needed to go back to school and finish a degree. This is officially my second year here. I was supposed to finish this year, but because I’m currently planning my daughter’s quinceañera, I can’t juggle practicum and that. So, I’m pushing into the fall, when I’ll start with OSU. So, yeah, that’s my journey.
The first time I came here, I took my daughter to the Periwinkle Child Development Center. She was there while I was taking classes here, and I did a work-study. It was just to be able to pay for my books and school supplies and things like that.
So LBCC definitely has a place in my heart. I was just like talking to other parents who are students as well that are friends of mine and just hearing their struggles and knowing my struggles too of juggling life and school. And you know if some trials or challenges and barriers impede you from being successful during the term, then your GPA goes low, and then there’s just all these feelings of guilt.
I just went ahead and asked the Child Development Center here, once I knew that they opened, I was like, “You know what? I feel inclined to start a group of parents who are students and we can navigate resources or support within the school where we get more understanding or compassion from instructors because they themselves have families and they should be able to relate to our struggles but still push us at the same time.”
So they said, “Yes, we used to have something like that a while back, but because we haven’t had the initiative of anybody willing to have it start back up.” And I was like, “Oh, amazing.” So yeah, I’m currently Change Makers president. For the HDFS program, we’re collaborating with Estudiantes del Sol. I’m also a member there. I do lots of work outside of here, but that’s another story.
So how’d you get involved with the IEDI?
They sent an email out to students that there was an opportunity to fly to Chicago for the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute. They reached out asking if there was anybody interested in joining or attending, and I was just like, “Oh my goodness, I feel so bad that I have not stepped foot to the club’s meetings.” I’ve been doing Change Makers so much. And the EDI was like, “You just have to pay this fee, $180, and then the school pays for the rest.” So that’s how I made connections with them. I met with Jason a little bit more, but because we have mutual friends who are instructors here. The EDI is just like this community space where it’s just like you share your story. We all collaborate and we can make something amazing out of this from us. I just felt it definitely is a staple of what the school is and what it represents when we have support from people from the EDI. So that’s why I’m like, “Okay, now that I know more about it, and oh my gosh, I cannot believe I wasted all this time.” But yes, I am an active member of the Student Desert now. I enjoy it, I really do. I’ve learned from it. I’m the oldest one there, and that’s the thing: in all of my classes or the groups, I’m the oldest student.
I face some challenges just because I feel like I can relate more to the instructors or to the leaders of these organizations, right? I’m like, “It’s okay. It’s a learning opportunity.” you know It’s something to cross in the books of everything I’m doing.
So that trip you mentioned, can you tell me more about the Hispanic Leadership Conference?
Yeah, that was in March, the first week of March, and it was for four days. It’s all these leaders and activists in the nation who attend this conference that’s once a year. If you identify as Latino or Hispanic you are welcome to attend, but I feel like you can’t just go. I feel like you have to be under an institution so you’re going to be part of a club or something, then I guess you have a way in. Plus it does require some fees for the conferences, etc. I had heard about it two years ago, but not from here.
Some students I’ve had I’ve tutored were applying to OSU. They said, “My staff is a teacher in Spanish Maestra. Could you write a letter of reference for me? And also, could you speak to my parents about letting me attend this trip? Because you know this is my first trip on an airplane and my parents just want me nearby. I cannot travel anywhere. But I feel like if you put a word in for me I could go.” I was like, “Okay. Let me do some digging.” So I have some information on what to tell them. Then you know I found out about it. I was like, “Man, I want to be there one day.” So I spoke to their parents, and they were like, “Okay, yes, because I trust you, Maestra, we will let our child go.”
Then, I was the oldest student there. I was thinking, “Okay. There are many, many schools, and many students who are going to this. I’m sure there are going to be others that identify like myself.” Yeah, no, I was the mom of the group. But as I said, I really wanted to go. Two years ago, I found out about it, and I’m like, ” I made it. I did it.” I learned a lot, I’m not going to lie. The guys that I went with were the students between 18 and 20. During the speakers, I was like, “I want this.” And they’re like texting and stuff, and they’re like, “Oh, gosh. Oh, we can’t wait till we get to tour Chicago.” That was their thing. For me, I’m just like you know in my mind, “I just need to work hard so that one day I can come and enjoy Chicago.” Not like right now, I just want to get the knowledge from everybody and how I can grow. So it’s different mindsets, but they were like, “Okay. Can you just give us a rundown of what happened?” I was like, “Yeah, look at my notes.” They’re so funny.
Are you excited about OSU?
I am. It’s been a dream to attend just because, like I said, I’ve started a major and I never finished one that ends here at LB to be able to transfer.
I’ve been desiring to attend OSU. After I had my daughter, when she was about a year old, we lived in areas where there were a lot of college students living there. We were like one of the very few families that were there. I would ride the bus, I didn’t drive back then, so all the students, there were like 60 students waiting outside to board the bus. They would all allow me to go in first with my child.
I was just like, “Oh, my goodness. They get to go free on the bus.” Back then, the bus wasn’t free. You had to pay. But if you had an OSU ID card, you could ride them for free and LBCC ID cards did not count. So then I was just like, “Oh my goodness, one day I’m going to have an OSU ID, and one day I’m going to get on the bus for free.” So from then on, it’s been a life goal.
And others are just like, “Yeah, I’m going to a four-year institution.” But I’ve met so many people who were and are professors at OSU. Some club leaders are at OSU. With my growth, I’ve met them and they are always like, “Catalina, you know I’m doing this project. Do you want to collaborate with me? You know we could use your brains here.” And I’m like, “Okay, yes, I’ll do it.” Which has enabled me to be able to do my own business of independent consultant work. Organizations say, “Hey, I want to do this.” They hire me individually at my rate, and I just meet with them. “Okay, what is it that you want to do?” And then I say, “Okay, your best technique is getting these people in and meeting with them.” Then they want more participation from community members because you know us here, even in curriculum groups, we do the best of putting all these flyers, right? And standing outside going, “Hey, look, we have this going on.” But still, the numbers are really low. And so as it happens, my job is to do the opposite, get three times the participation.
So that’s how I met all these people at OSU. So they’re like, “Okay. You’re finally coming.” They’re just like, “Oh, I want to pull you before other people start wanting you, I heard him cheering for you. You’re coming to my department.” But I wouldn’t be saying these things if the journey I’ve been up to now didn’t lead me there. So it’s just like if I went to high school I mean, right after high school, I went to OSU and I finished my degree. The journey would definitely be different. Many of the people I’ve met were because I had a child. I went to parenting classes. I went to these events that they were hosting as organizations. So I’ve built experience from that.
I guess when they see me in these spaces, they’re like, “Oh, I already know who you are. I already know what your capabilities are and I want you.” So definitely LBCC has a spot right here in my heart because it’s a staple of the journey that you know one decision I made. I mean, I had a kid and this school has definitely allowed me to spread my wings, take my time. I have so much support in an equitable lens. I also receive services from accessibility resources because I have epilepsy. It’s one of my disabilities. The instructors have been so accommodating and understanding. That’s why I decided to take as many classes as I could here at LB. Then what’s not offered at LB, I would do at OSU because I know what’s coming. I know that the amount of support and one-on-one that’s given here is not necessarily available there.
That’s why I’m holding on to LBCC, that’s the best way to do it. I mean, it’s cheaper and you learn more one-on-one. That’s something I’m just not looking forward to. It’s just like a big auditorium full of seats too. That’s always been my phobia, you know, actually taking the plunge and going to OSU. But I’m like, “Okay. Come on. I’m 34. I have to just wait.”
Anything else you want readers to know or anything? Any last thoughts?
Be proud of the journey that life takes you on.
Whether it is a decision you made as an impulse or a decision you took time to make, just hold on to hope that that path you take will eventually give you greatness. And yes, in that process, there will be ups and downs. They say there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, but sometimes it feels impossible to see that coming. There are people, resources, services, and communities around you that you don’t necessarily know you have. So if you see that any of them are at some point available to you, absolutely take them.
Any help or resources that exclusively, let’s say, LBCC serves, take advantage of them because there’s not one group or organization here that doesn’t do something to help you. They definitely help you excel. I’m very, very proud of my journey. I had a tough journey with economic hardships and with my disability, but you know I really held on to that. My purpose, which is my children, and what I wanted to do is just have them look into higher education. You know, so how can I implement that if I don’t myself get my degree first? I always put it as a joke to people when I say, “Yes, I have to finally finish it.” I say, “If I didn’t go back to school and I waited more, my daughter is going to finish college and she’s going to give her speech and be like, “I’m a first-generation” when I could have.
But I’m absolutely proud of every person who attends college, whether right after high school or if it took them years until they came back. Absolutely proud of each of them.
Catalina has also been featured in Mom Magazine’s Feb-Mar 2023 Edition.