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First in her family, finding her place

SMU News

Originally Posted: December 9, 2019

The daughter of a single mom who worked two jobs to support her family, Kaitlyn Contreras was determined to attend college.

“I knew I wanted to go to college; I just didn’t know how,” she says. “But I followed the advice of my grandmother. She never went to school and never learned to read or write, but she taught me to always ask questions.”

As an eighth-grader, Kaitlyn began asking questions, seeking a more challenging high school than the one in her neighborhood.

What Kaitlyn couldn’t know then was that asking questions would open the door to unique opportunities. READ MORE