By Judith Lopez
After a little more than three years at East Los Angeles College, Dominique Solis will finally achieve her goal of graduating despite her many struggles.
Dominique Solis has balanced being a full time student, single parent and worker for the past three years as she pursued a higher education. Dominique said, “It has not been easy trying to balance so many things at once and at times I’ve felt like giving up.”
Attending school has not always been an easy task for Solis, but everyday she is determined. “I would have been out of here a lot sooner, but I have other responsibilities that are my main priority, my children,” she said.
Solis has a 15-year-old daughter in high school and a four-year-old son in preschool. She also has a full-time job where she works the night shift for the most part. This allows her to spend more time with her children during the day.
Her day is very fast paced. She needs to drop off her daughter by 7:50 a.m., then head to Pasadena to drop her son off at day care by 9 a.m. After that, she goes straight to school for her first class at 10:35 a.m.
She said she’s had to take the bus on a number of occasions because she does not have a reliable source of transportation, which she said “makes things just that much harder, especially on rainy days.” She goes to ELAC Monday through Thursday and majors in criminal justice.
While at work, Solis manages to find time on her lunch breaks to complete her homework and to study for upcoming exams. She tries to study as much as possible. Though it has been a hard process, she said she is very proud of herself. Solis admits that her greatest motivation for not giving up is her children. She said she strives to be a good role model for them, so that one day they both will follow in her footsteps and be college graduates.
Solis said that the struggle of pursuing school with a number of obstacles will be well worth it in the end. Solis said she set a goal to graduate from ELAC, and this year she will.
