Dodge City Community College (DC3) named me the 2022 Distinguished Alumnus and invited me to speak at this year’s commencement ceremony back in March. Too much has gone on in the first half of the year, so expect more updates soon. In the mean time, here’s what happened.

Community Colleges are cool

You can read about my time at DC3 in my background section, but simply put, attending DC3 was one of the best decisions I made that set me up for academic, financial, and personal success. I was basically paid to be on campus from 8am to 9pm (President’s scholarship meant no tuition, I was on a full Pell grant so I used that for all my living expenses, and I was a paid STEM tutor) and I had classes with all my friends. I was able to leverage my grades into a full ride to Kansas State University to do research as an undergrad (again, paid.) I would leverage that into a PhD and concurrent regulatory science MS from the USC School of Pharmacy, and leveraged that into a T32 fellowship at the Scripps Research Institute.

I highly recommend attending a quality community college if they have course transfer agreement with universities, i.e. you can complete your typical general education requirements like General Chem. I and II, Organic I and II, microbiology, intro to biology, English I and II, Calc. I-III, etc. The only potential drawback is that as a transfer student, you will be in upper level classes without having made connections in your major, but if you’re 1st gen and/or an under-served minority student, this adjustment won’t be easy anyway. I walked into a supportive community at DC3, but at K-State, I had to find one. For me, that meant joining Sigma Lambda Beta (a multicultural fraternity) which made all the difference in my undergraduate experience.

I’m not going to spell out the financial benefits of doing 2 years at a community college and finishing your degree at a 4-year university because they’re obvious. My academic career technically started as a high school junior, since I was taking Psychology and College Algebra at my community college for dual credit, for free. IMO, dual credit college classes were more helpful than advanced placement classes in high school (I did both; at best you can test out of classes with AP credit but you still have to take those credits/hours; transfer agreements get around this issue.)

Speaking at commencement

First, 2022 is my 10 year anniversary since graduating from DC3, that’s crazy!!! Second, I didn’t set out to speak at commencement or become a distinguished; I just always stayed connected with the community, kept in touch with professors, and did my own thing. Dylan Faulin (my College Algebra professor in 2009 and quiz bowl coach!!!) asked me if I’d be interested in giving a Science Cafe style seminar on a topic of my choosing earlier this year, and I instantly agreed. Unfortunately, it couldn’t be in person, but I still had a blast. I talked about my journey in science, my research and personal background, and answered any questions students had about biomedical science, university life, and my time at DC3. I did the whole seminar from the lab of course, and even did a patch-clamp electrophysiology experiment for students. Additionally, Dr. Anthony Aragon reached out to me to ask if I’d be willing to give students advice on some research projects, and I shared some resources and bounced ideas around with students. I guess all that went over well because a few weeks after that, I got a call from the President of the college telling me that the students wanted me to speak at commencement as the 2022 Distinguished Alumnus for my accomplishments in science.

I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to say, and tried to write my speech for months, but as hard as I tried, the words wouldn’t come out. It wasn’t until I was back in Kansas that I figured out what I wanted to say. Something about being back in Dodge made everything click. I got to hang out with students and faculty at the welcome reception (shout out to Kent Craghead, Barbara Spohr, Dylan Faulin and Jane Holwerda, all professors when I was there! And special shout out to professor Sherry Curtis, she really rolled out the red carpet and introduced me at every event). The reception was also fun because a lot of people from the community say hi and ask about science, addiction, brain diseases, etc. I also donated a copy of my dissertation to the library (indexed on 7/8/22!! objectively dope) and gave a mini-speech at the honors banquet, which was 1000% a freestyle, but I’m told it went well (see above). At the banquet, I sat with the President of the college and the board of directors, and while I didn’t need any additional convincing, they definitely gave me more ideas on staying involved and helping students.

My commencement was in 2012 at the Dodge City Civic Center, which is now the HQ of USD443, but the college built a very nice student activity center on campus, which is where the ceremony takes places now. I uploaded a video that my girlfriend took of the speech if you want to watch it. I can’t bear to read old essays or watch videos of myself, so you’ll have to tell me what you think. Like all commencement speeches, I was trying to inspire the students, but more importantly, show them the importance of community, following their passions, and being themselves. I also got to quote Tupac Shakur and share the phrase that got me through the toughest times: hechale ganas or “try your hardest”. My parents have been telling me hechale ganas since I was a kid, and given the large latin/hispanic community in Dodge, I think it was received well.

Family ties

The commencement ceremony coincided with my little brother’s birthday weekend, so that was also nice. These days I’m taking more opportunities to be with family, which is something I struggled with during undergrad and grad school, and to be honest, I still struggle with. Its usually always worth it to spend time with family though. For example, when my girlfriend and I where in town, my grandmother was visiting from Mexico, so that was another happy coincidence. One thing I’m bummed about is that I couldn’t stay longer, since my mom’s citizenship ceremony was a week later, although I had too much going on (I was working on a manuscript and had to be back for the Nucleate SD final pitch event in front of investors).

My little brother’s birthday was a lot of fun. I showed him the best pizza combination ever (chicken, jalapeno, and pineapple) which is now his favorite, and we had a sibling water war, which was too much fun. Saying goodbye at the airport is always hard, but another cool thing about Dodge City is that the regional airport is so small that your family can basically walk you to the gate, then they can hang around outside and watch the plane take off.