My journey through higher education was not straightforward. After graduating from high school, I enrolled in community college and spent several years trying to navigate a system I did not fully understand. I had ambition, but I lacked the guidance, information, and confidence to see a clear path forward.

In 2017, while attending an evening course at East Los Angeles College and working full time, a professor encouraged me to apply to CCCP. I did not yet understand what a transfer program could offer, but I trusted her recommendation and joined CCCP’s first Parenting SITE program that summer.

During those three days, I learned about the opportunities, resources, and possibilities available to me as a first-generation parenting student. More importantly, I was met with kindness, encouragement, and optimism. That experience gave me the confidence to complete the math and science requirements I had been avoiding and begin preparing to transfer. The following year, I applied to UCLA and was admitted for fall 2018.

CCCP changed the direction of my academic and professional life. The ambition had always been within me, but CCCP helped me believe I was capable of pursuing it.

Some of my most meaningful memories are rooted in the friendships, mentorship, and sense of community I found through the program. Before CCCP, I had never experienced what it felt like to be surrounded by people who believed in my goals and held hope not only for my future, but also for my son’s.

Graduating from UCLA became one of my proudest accomplishments. It proved to me that I had always been capable of developing my skills, overcoming challenges, and achieving more than I once imagined. I did not need someone to change who I was. I needed guidance, support, and a community that could help me recognize my own potential.

Today, I serve as the Administrative Coordinator at UCLA’s Center for Community College Partnerships, a role I have held since 2022. Last year, I earned my master’s degree in Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies, and I have since gained experience teaching Ethnic Studies at a community college. Supporting students through both my administrative work and the classroom has been deeply meaningful because I now have the opportunity to offer others the same care, encouragement, and optimism that once transformed my own journey.

I am one of many students whose life was changed by CCCP. The program believed in me before I fully believed in myself, and that belief changed the course of my life. Today, I am committed to reminding students that they belong, that they are capable, and that their dreams remain within reach, even when they cannot yet see the full path ahead.

CCCP’s impact also extends far beyond the students it directly serves. It reaches children, families, friends, and entire communities. Through my own experience, I have been able to guide loved ones as they pursue their academic goals and support my son, Dee, in ways I never imagined possible.

Dee has grown up alongside the CCCP community for the past nine years. He has witnessed my different roles, the challenges I have faced, the accomplishments I have celebrated, and even attended classes with me. When I first returned to school, I believed I was simply pursuing a dream I had carried since high school. Over time, I realized that I was not only changing my own future. I was also creating a new vision of what was possible for my son.

By continuing my education, I showed him what perseverance, resilience, and the power of community can make possible. That may be one of CCCP’s greatest impacts: it does not simply transform one student’s life. It creates hope, opportunity, and possibility across generations.