‘Not just a teen mom.’ Madera college student graduates with three degrees after hardship

Vanessa Barraza, 27, has her son’s name and birth date tattooed on her shoulder and her daughter’s face on her forearm. Another tattoo on her arm simply reads “Blessed.”

Barraza, who was raised in Madera, started getting tattooed when she was 14 years old.

Her life had been upended one year earlier, when her father, Julio, was deported to México.

“I was a daddy’s girl,” Barraza said. “It really was a life-altering moment.”

This year, her mother, her children and her husband watched Barraza graduate from Madera Community College as student body president and with degrees in biological science, social sciences and sociology. Barraza’s goal is to become a registered nurse and work in her community, as well as to help her father, who is still in México.

Her husband, José, was always there to remind her that “you can still do it.”

“I’m super proud of her for actually accomplishing what she’s been wanting to do and putting her foot forward,” Jose said. “It takes a lot of effort to go to school when you have a family, so I’ve been here pushing her to go for her goals.”

Barraza’s road to the commencement stage was bumpy at times. She rebelled after her father’s deportation by ditching school and began struggling with drug addiction. Three years later, she became pregnant with her son, Julio, who is named after Barraza’s father.

She dropped out of high school after becoming a teenage mother, but was able to graduate with her class at the Pioneer Technical Center in Chowchilla, the city she now calls home.

Her daughter, Lailani, was born when Barraza was 19. When Lailani became sick when she was just a few months old, Barraza spent a few more months with her in the hospital. The nurses didn’t only care for her daughter, but also supported Barazza emotionally, she said.

“A light bulb sparked in my head, and I was like, ‘This is what I want to do,’” Barraza said. “I want to be able to see … another person that looks like me or has felt like me and I just want to be there for those people.”

She went to college for the first time, but “then life hit me one more time.” Barazza dropped out after three semesters because of burnout and fell into another depression.

But she went back to college during the pandemic. This time, she asked for help and was herself asked to join the student government.

Barraza has been working to bring the Rising Scholars program, which helps formerly incarcerated students, to Madera Community College. It would help these students find their places in education, said Barraza, who admits her tattoos have sometimes caused her to feel like she doesn’t belong.

“I never saw myself in high school as being anything but a teen parent with no career,” Barraza said. “Now, it feels like I’m not just a teen mom. I’m actually someone other students look up to and ask for help.”

Barraza said her mother wants her to be mayor of Chowchilla one day.

“She sees that in me and it makes me see it, so it makes me want to do it,” Barraza said.

Ojo: In Madera County, 17.2% of all residents have a college degree, according to the U.S. Census.

This story was originally published May 30, 2024 at 6:00 AM.

Erik Galicia

The Fresno Bee

Erik is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, where he helped launch an effort to better meet the news needs of Spanish-speaking immigrants. Before that, he served as editor-in-chief of his community college student newspaper, Riverside City College Viewpoints, where he covered the impacts of the Salton Sea’s decline on its adjacent farm worker communities in the Southern California desert. Erik’s work is supported through the California Local News Fellowship program.