Amanda (right) discusses her research with a student
Amanda Hernandez always loved learning. As a child, she would spend hours at a time in the library contently reading books. School recess would become optional whenever she was given the chance to pursue her passion for knowledge. When she was a high school senior, she had dreams about going off to college to learn even more. But life had other plans for her.
After her high school graduation, Hernandez enrolled as a student at San Antonio College (SAC). Half way through her first semester, she was assaulted, causing her to drop out of school. Life, she said, was leading her in another direction.
“I ended up getting married at 19 and then I had my son, Ethan,” said Hernandez. “I was working at a retail cosmetics company at the time and I just thought, ‘what am I going to do?’ I couldn’t be in the mall working in retail cosmetics for the rest of my life. I just knew that if I wanted something better for my son, then I needed to go to school.”
In 2013, she returned to SAC to continue her coursework and quickly got involved with the college’s Honors Academy. It was during her time in the Honors Academy that she found her calling as a researcher.
“I had some really amazing instructors there that made me realize that I really loved research,” she said. “I like the really challenging part of academia.”
It was this love of research that brought her to UTSA.
“Knowing that I had this long term plan of graduate school, I wanted to go to an institution like UTSA where there’s this push for undergraduate students to do research,” said Hernandez. “This push for everyone at UTSA to rise to a really high level was impactful.”
As soon as she arrived at UTSA, she hit the ground running, declaring a major in women’s studies and earning a spot in the UTSA Honors College. Since then, she has used her personal experience as the inspiration for her research.
“I wanted to do research with people like me, people who had gotten married young or had kids young and didn’t know what to do after that,” Hernandez said. “It’s not unusual at all in San Antonio for people to find themselves in those situations. I wanted to figure out what is going on in those populations. I’ve been able to do that since I’ve been here.”
Currently, Hernandez is working on her undergraduate honors thesis about family and religion as social institutions and how these social institutions influence Latina’s ideas of womanhood and decision-making in higher education.
“I’m glad that there’s a place like UTSA where I am able to do research with the community I’m from,” she said. “It’s been really important to me.”
Last spring, Hernandez returned to SAC’s Honors Academy to complete her internship for the women’s studies program. She piloted a new mentoring program for students at-risk of falling below the academy’s GPA requirements. Like herself, all 10 of the students she mentored were first-generation Latina students.
“I had been through the program they were going through and I hope that I was someone they felt like they could come to with those concerns that they didn’t feel comfortable going to a professor with,” said Hernandez. “I felt like it was really important to listen to them and what they wanted. I wanted them to work through some of the problems that first generation students had. A lot of them worked or were taking care of their families. All of them had these common frustrations, so I’m glad I was able to bring them together and let them talk about it.”
She hoped that she was the kind of mentor to them that her UTSA professors have been for her.
“One of the things that I found at UTSA that was really impactful was seeing Latina professors,” said Hernandez. “They are young, ridiculously smart women who look like me and talk like me. If they can do it, I can. It’s important for me that I am able to do that for someone else. I want to be able to be that mentor that others have been for me.”
Shaped by her experiences and focused through her research, Hernandez’s aspirations continue with sights set for her Ph.D., becoming a university professor, and maybe even running for a political office.
“I want to help people,” she said. “It’s important that people realize their worth. It’s something that I constantly have to work on when I get discouraged or feel like I’m swimming against the current. To know that I am a part of the chain of women helping other women is important to me.”
But no matter where she goes, she will always carry with her what she has learned as a women’s studies and honors student here at UTSA.
“I can’t speak highly enough about what the women’s studies program has done for me,” said Hernandez. “The instructors are amazing and dedicated. You hear a lot of, ‘oh women’s studies, what are you going to do with that?’ The thing I keep telling people is that when you are a women’s studies major, you are fed so much knowledge that you are just so excited to get out there and do something. You don’t just stop at a bachelor’s degree. It’s a catalyst for something better.”
