Valencia College Stories

Re-igniting her passion

Discouraged after moving to Florida, Paola Santini found inspiration and a passion for science at Valencia College.

— by Linda Shrieves

Paola Santini could hardly believe it.

In April 2024, at Valencia College’s first annual PURRCY Awards, the 19-year-old from Davenport was named the Puma of the Year by the college’s student development team.

What a turnaround. A few years earlier, Paola was so discouraged and unhappy that when she graduated from high school, she wasn’t even sure she wanted to go to college.

So, what happened?

Paola’s journey from frustrated high school senior to star pupil took many turns. It all started when her family moved from Puerto Rico to Davenport, Fla., in the wake of Hurricane Maria. Paola’s family had stayed on the island for two years after the hurricane, but the hoped-for recovery was slow; and because Paola had always been an excellent student, she persuaded her parents to consider moving to Florida so she could attend high school for two years here – making her eligible for in-state tuition at Florida colleges.

Her parents were initially skeptical, but in 2019, when her mom got laid off from work because of COVID, they agreed the move might help the family, so they packed up their lives – in 32 boxes – and moved to Polk County.

But the transition wasn’t as smooth as they’d hoped. At her charter high school in Lakeland, Paola loved theatrical productions – just as she had in Puerto Rico – but she didn’t get many speaking parts. She also struggled in other classes. Writing in English was hard – and to make matters worse, she was removed from an AP English class because the teacher said Paola’s written English wasn’t good enough for the course. “It was as if every step I took forward, I was pushed back twice as much,” she says.

“When I finished high school, I had experienced so much culture shock that I didn’t want to apply to college at all,” she recalled. “My parents said, ‘Just apply to one. Apply to Valencia. Just get started and try to change your mindset. That’s why we came here.”

Reluctantly, she agreed to apply to Valencia College. And then, serendipity intervened.

“One night, I was scrolling through Instagram, and I saw on the Valencia page, ‘Apply to the Summer STEM Institute and get a tuition waiver in math.’ I had no scholarships at the time, and no way to pay for college.”

So, Paola filled out the application – just to get one free math class.

A joint summer program hosted by Valencia College, Polk State College, Seminole State College and College of Central Florida, the Summer STEM Institute brings STEM professors in to give students a one-hour preview of their courses, allowing students the chance to participate in STEM activities and research.

And there, a spark rekindled inside Paola. “It was the first experience that got me back into education and loving college,” she said.

At the end of that one-week program, students work together in small groups to do a research project. Paola’s group chose to tackle the issue of whale-ship collisions and proposed a solution using underwater speakers attached to boats to emit sound waves that would warn away whales and store energy.

After her presentation, she was astounded by the number of questions and the discussion that followed. “That’s when I knew: this is what I want to do for the rest of my life,” says Paola.

 

 

Still, despite that experience, she was nervous when she showed up at the Osceola Campus for the first week of classes.

“Every time I had a class, I would introduce myself to the professor, ‘Hi I’m Paola. I’m a new student here, I have a bit of an accent, I might write differently…’ and every time they would reassure me that they were there to help me,” she recalled. “It was just a very welcoming experience from the beginning.”

After her first semester, at the suggestion of a professor, she applied to join VECTOR – Valencia Engaging for Completion Through Opportunities in Research. Between that small group and the LSAMP program, Paola found a community of friends.

“I was busy doing work-study, running three clubs (STEM Club, Music Club, and Phi Theta Kappa), being in honors classes, and working on research projects,” recalls Paola. Still, she volunteered for everything she could – and completed more than 100 hours of community service, while receiving many distinctions such as the Valencia Global Distinction, Honors Scholar, Research Awards, and more.

“I was on top of the world… but I still felt like an imposter. I thought, ‘They’ll eventually figure out that I’m not good enough for the program,’ so I had to take all the opportunities I could at Valencia while I had the chance, ultimately ending up with 29 college awards.”

That’s why as a freshman at Valencia, she applied for 37 internships. She only landed one internship, at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, where she worked on a project studying saltwater intrusion and its effect on coastal forests.

And that program began to open more doors. While working with the UMES team, Paola learned about a very selective program for undergraduates through the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration – one that came with a $45,000 scholarship, two fully paid summer internships, two fully paid conferences and a guaranteed job offer after college.

Paola applied, but so did 4,000 other people, and only 15 would be accepted.  On the day that the results were to be announced, she watched her computer all day, until an email popped up that read “Congratulations.”

“I just started crying. I couldn’t read the rest of the email,” she said. “I started thinking back to when my parents decided to leave their friends and family behind. We didn’t even get to say goodbye because of Covid.  Then coming here, going to high school and having so much culture shock, negative comments thrown at me and my family when we spoke Spanish... But I owe my success to my parents, because they were the ones who sacrificed so much for me to be everything I am today.”

“And coming to Valencia was a huge part of my story. Because Valencia College took me in and showed me what else I could be. I am so grateful for every professor, mentor, and friend I crossed paths with here.”

The highlight of Paola’s Valencia College experience came in April 2024, when the college’s Student Development team gathered students from all the student clubs and organizations for the first annual Purrcy Awards.

And there, at the ceremony, Paola was named Puma of the Year.

“I just cried,” she recalled. “It was my last day on a Valencia campus... it was like a new beginning, while saying goodbye to Valencia, this place that made the most of me.”

Today, Paola is a McNair Scholar at UCF, working at the Marine Ecology and Conservation Lab, and she landed a job as a mentor to help transfer students find a place and family at UCF.