From Struggle to Wisdom

Paulina Lazaro Aleman cried every week during her freshman year at FPU. High school had felt impossible for the Edison High School graduate, who was diagnosed with ADHD her senior year. Debilitating mental and academic challenges affected her grades and her relationship with her Mexican immigrant parents. They encouraged her to attend Fresno Pacific, hoping the small university could offer the support their daughter needed.

“FPU was meant for me even though I didn’t know it at the time,” Lazaro Aleman says.

Now a senior Spanish major, Lazaro Aleman has a 4.0 GPA and is active in the University Scholars Program (USP). Thanks to medication that helps her center her curious nature and the support of accommodating professors, she’s discovered she’s capable of accomplishing anything she sets her mind to.

Lazaro Aleman is the vice president of Alpha Alpha Alpha (Tri-Alpha), an honors society for first-generation students. Since roughly half the university’s students are first-generation, University Scholars Coordinator W. Marshall Johnston, Ph.D., says mentoring is Tri-Alpha’s primary focus. “First-gen students don’t have a family background and they’re not aware of scholarships and what to expect in college,” he says. “They’re going to do better when they leave our campus because they’ll know what it’s like to struggle, but they’ll know how to network and what leaders should look like.”

Perhaps surprisingly, Lazaro Aleman says she is grateful for the hardships she experienced growing up, because you can’t live a more fulfilling life than the one lived by someone who struggles. As a junior, she was invited to join Alpha Chi, an interdisciplinary honors society for the top 10% of upperclassmen. “Getting into Alpha Chi was a redemption arc that allowed me to redeem my high school experience,” she says. “I think I’ve healed many parts of myself that were broken because of the public education system. I’ve learned to advocate for myself.”

Being in honors is as much about leadership and enhancing college and future experiences as it is about academic performance, Johnston says. Great importance is placed on helping students develop their God-given potential and providing support, encouragement and mentoring for their life’s journey. “The university is trying to train for all of life, so take your required classes, but beyond that, you should do things around campus and look for ways to augment your intellectual work,” Johnston says.

The program’s key Bible verse is Luke 12:48: To whom much is given, much will be required. “We don’t take our intellectual gifts for granted,” Johnston says. “Our honor students aren’t just those with high GPAs and test scores and scholarships; they choose to be part of a high-achieving cohort.”

Senior Cailey Lessel, USP teaching assistant and member of Tri Alpha and Alpha Chi, is spending the fall semester on an exchange program in Lithuania. The political science and philosophy double major has also participated in conferences at Harvard and in Birmingham, AL. Her goal is ambitious—she wants to be an ambassador for the United Nations—but her experience in the program has given her the confidence to position her education into real-world practice. “I came into FPU very unpolished, but the way I’ve learned how to communicate and my interpersonal skills have grown exponentially,” she says.

In addition to Alpha Chi, qualifying students can join societies with a focus on history, math, social science, biblical studies and social work. In addition to smaller class sizes, honors students have opportunities to travel to regional and national conventions, participate in collaborative research projects and special learning opportunities, and attend honors banquets and awards ceremonies.

Johnston says the 200 students involved in the USP have opportunities for scholarly publication, a network that will serve them beyond their time at FPU and lifetime membership that enhances their resume.

For Lazaro Aleman, seeing her family in the audience at honors society ceremonies has made an educational journey once fraught with challenges worthwhile. Her dad’s formal education ended after seventh grade, and her mom couldn’t afford college, yet they never stopped encouraging her to strive for more than working at the family’s taco truck. “I’m so grateful for the sacrifices my family has made for me; they’ve been there every step of the way,” she says. “If it weren’t for my mom teaching me about the opportunities and freedom that come with education, I wouldn’t have worked so hard.”

Next for Lazaro Aleman are pursuing a teaching credential and master’s degree at FPU to become a dual immersion teacher and encourage families like hers that found the public school system difficult to navigate. “FPU is very service focused and kind-hearted and benevolent and it’s made me want to help others,” she says. “I want to support students and their parents who come from a background of need.”

Lessel says that wherever students’ passions lie, the University Scholars Program will leave them astonished with their own potential. “It’s an unexpected door that’s open for you and it’s about creating space for the kind of person you are; you don’t have to fit into a mold,” she says. “I’ve found so much love for justice and virtue and have learned that wisdom has to grow into service.”