Exceptional Graduates: Graduation a balancing act for hard working BASOL student

College life has been a delicate balancing act for Sabrina Mendoza.

Life as a single mother, full-time employee, and full-time student didn’t exactly put her in the easiest of circumstances. One sudden movement off the straight and narrow could impact the life of her family significantly, she said, but the challenge set her apart from many of her peers.

Now finally set to walk across the stage to receive her Bachelor of Applied Science in Organizational Leadership this May, Sabrina says there was one personal philosophy that enabled her to succeed despite her challenges.

The future she created at South Texas College would influence the future she would put in place for her young son, she said. As a single parent, she had to coordinate her three-year-old son's schedule as well as her work and class assignments and be sure she didn’t fall behind.

“It has almost been like a juggling act or a balancing act,” Sabrina said. “You really have to balance your time. I am a single mom and I work full-time so it has been very difficult, but I want to be able to not only have a better life for myself, but also offer my son a better life.”

Sabrina describes her work and school schedule over the last several years like this. Most days were often a struggle to wake up after long nights working or studying. Preparing for her day, she would then head to work at a local T-Mobile Retailer for hours before making her way to class at STC, usually not arriving back home until 10 at night.

“There have been a lot of moments where I would only get two or three hours of sleep in a day trying to keep up with my assignments,” she said. “Then I would have to get up and do it all again the next day. If my child got sick, well guess what, no more sleep for me there.”

Sabrina graduated with her Associate degree in Interdisciplinary Studies Magna Cum Laude with a 3.91 GPA in 2017. She returned to STC in 2018 in order to work on her Bachelor’s degree in Organizational Leadership and is currently the president of the National Society of Leadership and Success on campus.

Looking to transition into a supervisory role at her current job, Sabrina says courses at STC taught her data analysis, human resources management, as well as communication and networking skills she will apply to real-life situations on the job.

Sabrina will be among the thousands of students who will walk across the stage to receive their diplomas during May commencement. STC plans to confer over 3,700 degrees in five ceremonies over a two-day period May 17-18.

As for the next step in her education, Sabrina looks forward to continuing her master’s degree in Business Administration, which will further assist her goal moving forward in a job she loves. She will always remember the tightrope she walked to get to this point, she said.

“Everybody has those moments where you just feel so down or it almost feels like it's too much and that's the time where you keep going,” Sabrina said. “When you are so close to the end, you have to remember why you started to begin with, and I think that if you keep that focus in mind, and you really think about that, and you really push through, then you can do it.”