“When I was a young boy growing up, I had little idea of what my goals and aspirations in life might be.

I’m a first-generation Mexican American from a working-class family in Park City. My parents made the choice to move down to Draper so we could attend Juan Diego Catholic High School. It was a pivotal decision that changed my life and showed me opportunities that I didn’t really know were possible.

My journey to the U began right after high school, but I didn’t go straight to college. At that particular time, in 2020, when the pandemic was happening, I wasn’t even sure what I was going to do after graduation.

I decided to take a gap year and worked to make a little money to help with expenses. After some encouragement from my parents and grandparents, I enrolled at the U.

I thought about it and felt the wind just push my vision all the way to the foothills. And I knew in that moment that this was the right decision for me.

It took some time to choose a major, but I came to campus with lots of enthusiasm and little anxiety about being one of the first people in my family to attend a university. Now, it was just a matter of selecting what to study, which was challenging for me.

It wasn’t until my second year that things started making sense. After attending a welcome back event in the fall of that year, I got some suggestions at one of the tables.

They told me to take some time and enjoy my general studies courses and get the hang of being a student first. Honestly, that was the best piece of advice because from there I just started doing more study in political science, my eventual major.

I also added my first language, Spanish, as a second major.

I’ve been very blessed to have made that decision because it has rewarded me with so many amazing faculty mentors. In fact, a lot of the faculty wrote letters of recommendation for me to go to grad school and nominating me for the outstanding senior award.

My grandfather encouraged me to keep my Spanish up to honor my heritage.

He told me, ‘I want you to learn Spanish.’ He said the one of the first homework assignments was to ‘help your brothers and sisters continue practicing their Spanish as well.’

Now that graduation is here, I am so grateful for the support of my family, friends and instructors for helping me attain all that I have so far.

It’s really surreal to think that I’m right here. There are some words that always ring in my head. It’s my mother telling me, ‘You deserve to be there. You deserve to be at the table, and you deserve to be in the position you’re in and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.'”

—Tomas Cruz Villalvazo, Class of 2025, B.A. Political Science and Spanish, College of Humanities