It's been quite a journey for a pair of Eastern Washington University students who initially had serious doubts about higher education, but are now on the path to, of all things, doctoral degrees.
Mikaila Leyva will attend Notre Dame University in South Bend, Ind. in the fall and friend Amy Nunez from Yakima is off to Indiana University-Bloomington.
Both just received their undergrad degrees from EWU June 13 and will spend the better part of the next five years earning both masters and doctorates at their respective schools.
Leyva, 23, graduated from EWU with a bachelors degree in international affairs and a minor in Spanish. Her masters and Ph.D. will be in political science. "My ultimate goal is to be a professor," she said.
The 22-year-old Nunez would also like to be a professor in elementary education courses. "Or become an administrator, I feel with policy and leadership studies I can go both routes, it keeps my options open," Nunez said.
It's a fast track of study that will get each to their goal.
"I think it's kind of a misconception that you have to get your masters (first) and it's very rare for people to jump to their Ph.D. program after bachelors, but it's possible," Nunez said.
Both Nunez and Leyva were in the McNair Scholar Program while at EWU, It's a program that prepares students to attend graduate school.
According to the website, the McNair Scholars Program is a federal program funded at 200 institutions across the United States and Puerto Rico by the U.S. Department of Education. It is designed to prepare undergraduate students for doctoral studies through involvement in research and other scholarly activities.
It's named for Ronald Erwin McNair who spent his life dedicated to education and was killed in the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger, Jan. 28, 1986.
"It's really to help under-represented segments of society," Nunez explained. "It really tries to promote first-generation, low-income or minority students to pursue graduate school and ultimately Ph.D's."
Leyva was born and raised in Everett, Wash. but her family is originally from El Paso, Texas. She is the first one in her family to attend college.
It didn't start out with that direction in mind as Leyva said she "was an OK student in high school," at Everett High.
Leyva just never saw higher education much in her future, but her acceptance to EWU, and its affordability, changed things.
"All these things that happened, like McNair, it was just opportunities that happened and I took them," Leyva said.
Leyva said she was a good student at Eastern and that opened the McNair door. A professor asked her if she had ever thought of trying for a Ph.D., to which Leyva asked," What's a Ph.D.?"
"Both of my parents emigrated from Mexico a little over 20 years ago," Nunez said. Both work in agriculture. "I like to say we didn't have much growing up, (but) we always had our basics."
Nunez was the second person in her family to go to college, but the first to go straight to a university.
"One of the main reasons we are going to get our doctors degrees is because of our upbringings," Nunez said. "We know there are a lot of barriers to higher education."
As a student at Eisenhower High in Yakima, Nunez said, "I tried my best."
Nunez said her family has always been supportive, but did not have a lot of understanding on what it was she was doing at school.
"They know that it's for the best." Nunez said. "I know they know it's a big deal." Her parents just do not understand the value of education, coming from Mexico.
Leyva's father did not graduate from high school but her mother did. "They never discouraged me from going to school."
Her dad was the hardest person to convince. "I knew I wanted to be a construction worker when I was 16, why don't you have a job?" he asked.
Neither understood why their daughter was going to school for so long and did not yet have a job.
And when they said they were going to go for another five years, their parents reiterated the need to get a job.
The one thing her dad did understand about her pursuit of more education was the football aspect of Notre Dame. "He was excited about that." Leyva said.
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
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