Fabiola Resendiz

I would attribute my success mainly to my family, my two kids, because they are the driving force for me to not give up, because I know that I need to make a life for them, for myself. My next driving force is, of course, the students that I work with on a daily basis, because without them, I wouldn't have a job and I wouldn't have the insights that I have now. I was never told growing up to make something that makes you happy in life, it was always financially driven, so thanks to my kids and thanks to my students, I'm able to now balance both and I'm trying to achieve both. I'm a full-time mom, I'm a full-time student at the University of Texas at Arlington trying to better myself academically, and I'm also a full-time employee trying to give back to the students that have given me so much over the years.

The best career advice I have received is when you're looking for a career, you have to think about how long you're going to be in that career field. Do you want to spend the next 50 years working on a hobby, or working on something that makes you happy? Because if I were to turn a hobby into a job, it no longer becomes a hobby, it becomes something that I have to do. A hobby, for me, was something that was relaxing and fun, but not something I want to do every single day. So don't turn your hobby into your job, turn your job into your hobby. Something that you enjoy doing every single day. When you go to work, it just doesn't feel like a job, it feels like something you're excited and motivated to do.

I would tell them, first and foremost, don't be afraid to ask for help. And the second bullet to that is never think that you don't belong, because you do. You could be that resource or that role model for another little girl that is being told at home that she's not gonna make anything of herself, or the only thing she'll be good enough is to be a stay-at-home mom, which there's nothing wrong with that, but there are limitations to that. For the next influential woman, I would say dream big, dream realistically, and then start small. You always begin somewhere, so don't take that experience for granted. Always strive to be that role model for somebody else, because somebody else is always going to need a role model.

One of the challenges I have for this position is I am the only one to cater to all seven campuses. That does present a challenge when I have to go to two or three different campuses in one day. But the solution that I have found is that students talk to students a lot, and they tend to go with what other students do, and so that's what prompted me to create the STEM Leadership Academy along with another student who is now at the university level. Together, we created a curriculum and a system of teaching leadership and communication skills to students so that they can help me project all of these resources and services that we have to offer at their campus locations. We started back in 2024 with 30 students, and then it progressed to 60, and then from 60 it progressed to about 80 now. So I have a challenge, I still do, but I have a solution to it, and it's ever-growing.

I would say trust, respect, communication, and perseverance are the values most important to me.