Graduation speaker wins $120,000 scholarship, shares story of hardship

By Suni Jo Roberts
Deputy Editor

During her time at WCC, Maria “Paula” Salazar-Valiente immersed herself in every opportunity she could. As a student ambassador she taught students about WCC resources. She was involved in the leadership of five student clubs as well as being an active member in her church.

Her many accomplishments while at WCC, include being awarded the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Scholarship for community college transfer students in the amount of $120,000. But those who know Salazar-Valiente say she doesn’t want to focus on those and instead focuses on serving others.

“She’s very passionate about helping others and she has really inspired me in terms of reaching out to others and just being there for them; whether it’s to support them emotionally or trying to help, like reach out with ways to get resources on campus,” said Danielle Howard, a WCC student and friend of Salazar-Valiente.

Before enrolling at WCC, Salazar-Valiente grew up in Peru, El Salvador and Belize. She considers Belize her home. She grew up in a blended family that, for a short period of time, relied on each other during their parents’ health problems.

“I remember those were, like, really hard times, just because my family had never had income struggles until that point,” said Salazar-Valiente. She said she dropped out of high school to take care of her family while also running her parents’ restaurant business with her brother. “I remember giving up my meals for my younger siblings and deciding who needs to eat and what needs to get done.”

Salazar-Valiente took on a lot of responsibilities as the oldest girl in her family, including cooking and cleaning. Even with the extra work, she recounts that time as one in which her whole family got through together, not just her pulling herself out of a hard time. “Because of all the struggles we went through, I feel like we built up such great ways to work together,” she said.

This time had mental and emotional effects on Salazar-Valiente, she acknowledges, but also had affects on her capacity for empathy and problem-solving.

“I remember … locking myself in a closet and just crying out and feeling the love of God,” said Salazar-Valiente. “Through this whole time, it was a huge struggle. Everything turned out for good.”

Her faith, then, as now, remains central to her strength and perseverance through difficulties. How did it help her get through this particular time?

“I think that my faith—just knowing that that was a process for God preparing me for something greater that I did not understand at that point,” said Salazar-Valiente. “Now I look back at it—a lot of the gifts and skills I tend to perform are not because of how I was born or how I was shaped by society, but because of those struggles. You know—when you are hungry, you learn to share, you learn to persevere, to be emotionally stable, to be a parent or a leader in crisis.”

Salazar-Valiente returned to school after her parents recovered. She spoke with her teachers who agreed to let her back to graduate from high school in Belize.

Her faith led her through the next couple years of her life.

After graduating from high school, she took three years off from school to run a nonprofit organization she started focusing on feeding children and teaching adults skills like fishing, gardening and building chicken coops. A church in Dexter partnered with Salazar-Valiente’s nonprofit in Belize, which brought along with it the opportunity to go to WCC.

“Coming to school, to be honest, felt very selfish. Just to know that a lot of people I serve and my friends and, even my siblings struggle, with opportunities like that,” said Salazar-Valiente. “I prayed about it and things became very clear.”

At WCC, Salazar-Valiente studies liberal arts and plans to transfer and study international law in order to affect change in her home country. She has been accepted to the University of Michigan and is waiting to hear back from other schools.

Salazar-Valiente doesn’t have a job title in mind as a final goal, instead focusing on having power and influence in order to serve people. She views crime and the lack of stable government and law enforcement response as central issues in the “northern triangle” (an area made up of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador). She hopes to address those problems in her future career. She said in Belize crime is so rampant it pushes children indoors.
“You don’t play outside, that’s not a thing,” said Salazar-Valiente.

No matter what her future title, she has already accomplished much while at WCC and continues to live her life dedicated to service.

“There are dozens and dozens of students I work with on a monthly and yearly basis and Paula is one of those ones that just plain and simple rises to the absolute top,” said Devin Streur, WCC’s international student adviser who advised Salazar-Valiente as a student. “She is just one of those people who truly deserves a scholarship like that.”

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