Yanet Penaloza-Rios

Through challenges that came throughout high school, I clung to the possibility of a better future, if only I could graduate from high school and receive some type of scholarship to help me financially. After being heavily involved in extracurricular activities for all four years, I received a full ride scholarship from Arizona State University in Justice Studies.

After starting classes at ASU, I was invited back every spring semester by my JROTC instructor to talk to other current students at Maryvale High School about my journey and hopefully inspire them to pursue their education, regardless of their background. I loved giving back to my community in this way and decided that helping people obtain their education in a professional setting would be extremely rewarding work. This prompted me to return to school and obtain my master’s degree in Higher and Postsecondary Education and began working at ASU in the academic advising department.

Adult learners are a population of students who juggle a million responsibilities at once, while having fortitude of choosing to pursue their education simultaneously. Obtaining a degree of any sort is already a challenging task, but adding so many other competing tasks that come with being an adult leaner can make the whole experience seem impossible, and this is why EdAssist exists. Coming from working as an academic advisor, I understand the challenges students face once they begin the program, so being able to decipher the questions that employees have about starting said programs, is a situation in which I can positively affect the trajectory of their education.