SAN ANTONIO – Northwest Vista College graduate Danielle Barrera knows what it feels like to feel defeated.
“I feel like it’s always when you hit rock bottom and you’re really searching for depth and meaning in what it is that you want to do,” Barrera said.
In 2009, she juggled being a single, new mom and going to school. She did not know she had help and resources, so she flunked out. But she says it was her daughter who inspired her to get back up.
“She has been a catalyst in me bettering myself, so that I could be in a good place to come and get an education and be successful,” Barrera said.
Barrera went back to school ten years later, this time with the help of Northwest Vista’s Counseling Department for support. She thrived, and became the Student Government Association President. Now, she is enrolled at the University of Texas at San Antonio, to study politics and law.
“(What) she’s doing is selfless and it’s for everyone else. And it makes us really proud that, you know, she’s a wildcat here,” Marie Morgan, the director of student success at Northwest Vista College said.
From there, she hopes to go to law school and be an attorney who advocates for those who do have a voice.
“Seeing that development in her from when she started to where she is today, there is nothing that can stand in her way. She is such an adaptive leader. She’s a transformational leader,” Dr. Rodell Asher, the director of district-wide student engagement and leadership for the Alamo Colleges District said.
If you are struggling, Barrera encourages you to remember you are never alone. All you have to do is be willing to get back up.
“If you knock on one door and you don’t get an answer, go knock on another one and just keep knocking until you get the answer that you’re looking for,” Barrera said.