{"id":11036,"date":"2024-06-12T09:42:12","date_gmt":"2024-06-12T14:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=11036"},"modified":"2024-06-12T09:42:12","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T14:42:12","slug":"after-winding-journey-to-college-maria-pacheco-evolves-into-leader-at-urock","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/after-winding-journey-to-college-maria-pacheco-evolves-into-leader-at-urock\/","title":{"rendered":"After winding journey to college, Maria Pacheco evolves into leader at URock"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Maria Pacheco, an arts and science and international business major, presides as student government president on the UW-Whitewater at Rock County campus. Student representatives were taking up end-of-year business and recognitions on Thursday, April 18, 2024. (UW-Whitewater photo\/Craig Schreiner)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Maria Pacheco is one of many 2020 high school graduates who\u2019ve made the most of their time in higher education, after the COVID-19 pandemic changed the world just before she earned her diploma.<\/p>\n

Pacheco, whose family moved to the United States from Mexico, was going through the process of acquiring permanent residency as a senior at Janesville Craig High School in 2020. As part of the process, she moved back to Mexico and was unable to come back to the U.S. for more than one year due to the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\"Maria<\/p>\n

As soon as she was able, Pacheco moved back to Wisconsin. With aspirations of going to college, she took a year to work and save money. She began studying in the fall of 2022 and evolved into a student leader on campus of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater at Rock County.<\/p>\n

Fast forward two years, and Pacheco will cross the stage this Tuesday, May 14, to receive her\u00a0associate of arts and sciences associate<\/a>\u00a0(AAS) at UW-Whitewater at Rock County\u2019s\u00a0commencement ceremony<\/a>. She plans to begin classes at UW-Whitewater this fall as an\u00a0international business major<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pacheco and her family moved from Durango, Mexico \u2014 a city located approximately 560 miles northwest of Mexico City and approximately 500 miles from the U.S. border \u2014 to Wisconsin when she was four years old.<\/p>\n

As a child, Pacheco\u2019s love for school was so strong that her mother would threaten to not take her to school the next day if she misbehaved.<\/p>\n

Pictured right: Maria Pacheco, an arts and science and international business major, will graduate from the\u00a0UW-Whitewater at Rock County<\/a>\u00a0campus on Tuesday, May 14, and continue her studies at the Whitewater campus this fall. She is shown on April 18, 2024.<\/p>\n

Pacheco\u2019s desire to lead and serve shone through while she was a student at Janesville Craig High School. She helped the school start a League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) chapter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found it very helpful for a lot of students who were scared to ask questions,\u201d Pacheco said.<\/p>\n

Her passion for learning, coupled with her mother\u2019s push to continue her education, led Pacheco to become a first-generation college student. She enrolled at Rock County in 2022 after being encouraged to do so by some of her classmates from Janesville Craig who started on the same path two years earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were giving me information that going through URock was going to make it easier for me and help with the whole process of going from high school to college,\u201d Pacheco said.<\/p>\n

Pacheco was hesitant to get involved when she first arrived on campus \u2014 she noted that she \u201cjust kind of stepped into it without knowing anything about it\u201d \u2014 until she met Abdel Hamed, the president of student government, in fall 2022 and spoke to her academic advisor, David McKay.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbdel really encouraged people to join,\u201d Pacheco said. \u201cThat\u2019s how I started knowing about all of the committees and all the other activities that were around as well as speaking with my advisor, who has been a huge help with managing all of that and helping me understand more of how everything works.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pacheco started as a senator for\u00a0student government<\/a>\u00a0before moving into the position of vice president. She currently serves as president of the organization.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Seven
Latinos Unidos members, including Maria Pacheco, third from right, pause for a photo. The Latinos Unidos student organization on the UW-Whitewater at Rock County campus presented a vibrant Cinco de Mayo celebration for the community on Friday, May 3, 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pacheco was also heavily involved in\u00a0URock\u2019s Latinos Unidos<\/a>. She joined the school\u2019s\u00a0volleyball team<\/a>\u00a0last fall and assists the URock staff with campus tours for high school students.<\/p>\n

As a result of her leadership and involvement, Pacheco took home a bevy of URock awards for the 2023-24 academic year. She earned the school\u2019s Rock Star Award, was inducted into Phi Theta Kappa, a national two-year colleges honor society, and was recognized for her leadership with student government and as a TRIO student of distinction.<\/p>\n

McKay, who is also a senior lecturer of history at Rock County, has been Pacheco\u2019s advisor since she started as a student.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaria came in and wasn\u2019t sure whether she belonged here or would do well here,\u201d McKay said. \u201cAs she\u2019s gone through and gotten more comfortable here, she\u2019s gotten more involved in things. She was trying to get a LULAC chapter here, which requires a great deal of paperwork and national-level authorization \u2014 that tells you the drive and energy she has.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s blown through this place. She is going to make Whitewater a better place.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Maria
Maria Pacheco, an arts and science and international business major, will graduate from the UW-Whitewater at Rock County campus on Tuesday, May 14, and continue her studies at the Whitewater campus this fall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

As a first-generation college student, Pacheco qualified for the\u00a0TRIO program<\/a>, a federal initiative that provides structured academic, personal and career assistance to students as they complete their college education.<\/p>\n

McKay, who advises TRIO students, said URock is a place where students who encounter obstacles can \u2014 and do \u2014 thrive.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things Rock does well is we take students who don\u2019t fit the usual profile of a four-year school,\u201d McKay said. \u201cRock exists to take those students, gear them up, and get them ready for a four-year school. We do that well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pacheco credits Hamed, now a journalism major at UW-Whitewater who\u00a0earned the Outstanding Student Award<\/a>\u00a0for the College of Integrated Studies in 2023, and fellow peer Angel Gomez-Soto, also a UW-Whitewater student, for helping her visualize the transition to the Whitewater campus.<\/p>\n

She also shouted out McKay,\u00a0George Jones, professor in the College of Integrated Studies<\/a>, Janine Peterson, student affairs program specialist, and Samantha Soddy, outreach specialist, athletic director and volleyball coach, for their support throughout her tenure at URock.<\/p>\n

\u201cURock has a family-like community among the faculty, staff and students,\u201d Pacheco said. \u201cThat really helps students boost and grow their confidence and makes them feel like they belong at URock. It\u2019s a supportive environment that helps us transfer successfully to a four-year college by providing essential skills for our chosen career path.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Written by Chris Lindeke | Photos by Craig Schreiner<\/p>\n

Link to original story: https:\/\/uww.edu\/news\/archive\/2024-05-maria-pacheco-rock-county<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maria Pacheco is one of many 2020 high school graduates who\u2019ve made the most of their time in higher education, after the COVID-19 pandemic changed the world just before she earned her diploma. Pacheco, whose family moved to the United States from Mexico, was going through the process of acquiring permanent residency as a senior […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":11040,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[84],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-11036","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-whitewater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/11036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=11036"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=11036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}