Facing many obstacles throughout her life, 27-year-old social work student Angelica Rodriguez has overcome every one of them so that one day she may inspire someone who may be facing obstacles of their own.
During her adolescence, Rodriguez was forced to face unfavorable situations that made her educational finish line feel further. At times, higher education wasn’t even a part of the future she imagined. Growing up in poverty and being placed in foster care at 9 years old left her with the misguided belief that her life purpose didn’t go beyond being a ‘cashier’ or ‘stocker’.
“If you were to ask me at 16 years old what I was going to do when I grew up, I thought I was either going to work at the supermarket or I was going to be in the military. Those were the two things that I thought would be my life,” Rodriguez said.
It was Rodriguez’s foster parents that first brought this foreign concept, of going to college, to light.
“My foster mom saw an opportunity and said, ‘I think you could go to college,’” Rodriguez said. “At first, I was like, ‘No way!’ When we tested to see my reading levels, I was essentially a junior reading at a third-grade level… but I was the first in my family to graduate high school so at that point I thought, ‘Okay, maybe I could do this college stuff.’”
Rodriguez was accepted into the University of Texas at El Paso’s (UTEP) college preparatory program. Being surrounded by other future scholars who also grew up in unfavorable circumstances made her feel seen. However, Rodriguez dealt with sudden changes in her life like adoption and new environments. During the first years of her life, she watched the women in her life fit into the role of a stay-at-home mother. Being adopted into wealth by a local judge at 16 years old contributed to a change in attitude.
“This judge, who was now my parent, was telling me, ‘[Going to college] is just what we do in our family. We do school, and you excel, and you have the best tutors and best support.’ I feel like I had culture shock,” Rodriguez said.
Unfortunately, Rodriguez was met with failing grades early in her academic career as she was also met with unexpected turns in her romantic relationship at the time. She became pregnant while having fallen into a cycle of abuse and felt stuck in that moment.
“I became the women before me, in a relationship where they treat you however you want and you’re just there,” Rodriguez said.
She gave birth to a baby boy and left her situation to protect her and her child, in an effort to show her son that they both could amount to so much more. However, after returning to school following her son’s birth, she was uncertain of herself and carried the stress of academic probation.
Rodriguez was able to fight tooth and nail until she finally was back on track with her academic career, even if that meant taking one class at a time. Rodriguez says that her professors, advisors, and the resources UTEP offers for students with backgrounds like hers, such as Foster Homeless Adopted Resources (FHAR), helped her succeed much further than she originally thought.
The rest of Rodriguez’s academic career has been incredibly successful as she’s received the Outstanding Bachelor of Social Work Student Award, has been able to attend social work advocacy conferences, and will soon be working on her master’s in social work. She focuses her studies on social justice and social reform for felons—understanding how they ended up in their situations and how to help them. Rodriguez hopes that her work and her story will let her connect to those who find themselves in similar shoes.
Jesie Garcia is a staff reporter and may be reached at [email protected] or on Instagram @empanaditatriste.
