Daron Steven Pabelonio

American High School
AA-T Psychology Mission College, May 2019
Currently attending CSU East Bay

I began attending Mission College in Fall 2015. Since graduating high school, it was never easy. My mother passed away a day before my high school graduation and my father was not the most present in my life. I have fallen many times, but through my perseverance, I was able to conquer and be the first generation college graduate in my family. Sometimes you get blind throughout all the hardships, but trust me when I say life gets better, as long as you work for it.

My best experience is reaching out to the Counseling Department and Transfer Services. Chau Nguyen and MaryAnn Medrano have helped pave the way to reach my success. They make themselves available for the students and empathize to make it a comfortable environment.

I am current working as a Behavioral Therapist at A.G.E.S Learning Solutions and go to CSU East Bay. At Mission there is sense of community since it is a smaller campus. Since transferring, I have to form my community and expand my network.

Some advice I could give to current students is to set your mind to big and little goals and to celebrate when the little goals are accomplished. If I could get a restart at Mission, I would have gotten the help from Counseling and transfer services earlier. Reaching out for help, really makes a difference.

Fun Fact: I am goal oriented; I set goals that are achievable within the next 3-5 years.

Daron Steven shared that he received support services from Admissions & Records, Financial Aid, the Transfer Center, and Counseling.