Unveiling Potential: A Transformative Journey at Collin College

The higher educational journey of Collin College alumna Samar Rawas began with far more questions than answers. However, with a bit of guidance and a lot of self-determination, Samar looks back with much gratitude on the very journey that changed her life immensely.

Raised in a single-parent, low-income household, attending college was never a guarantee for Samar. The thought of leaving her family, and the concern of racking up tuition debt, kept her from planning too far after high school graduation.
         
“I wasn’t like the typical junior or senior who was studying for the SAT or ACT. I wasn’t even applying to four-year colleges,” Samar said. “My whole plan was to alleviate my mom from any financial burden, not create more.”
         
Working since the age of 16, Samar would soon find out that going to college wasn’t a goal too far out of reach.
         
“When I decided to attend Collin, I had friends who’d say? ‘Oh, well it’s just a community college,’ but I was beyond excited,” Samar said. “I needed to stay close by. I was my mother’s right hand, and I couldn’t just leave her.”
         
Keeping her close-knit family in mind, another significant concern kept Samar up at night — paying for college.
         
“Although Collin College is significantly affordable, to me, at that time, it wasn’t,” Samar said. “I knew I’d be dependent on financial aid to get me through college. That’s just the position 
I was in.” 
         
It wasn’t long before Samar was attending every workshop she could to learn more about financial aid opportunities. She decided that applying for a scholarship through the Collin College Foundation was a chance she couldn’t pass up. 
         
“To whoever read my application, thank you, because you really changed the trajectory of my life,” Samar said. “I got a Collin scholarship, and I was so ecstatic.”
         
Samar made it her mission to connect with professors and become as involved as possible. Her curiosity led her to student organizations that placed her in positions to make a change at Collin College.
         
“Not only did my education impact my life but so did all the staff members and professors I crossed paths with at Collin College,” Samar said. “I began working with the Office of Student 
Engagement. There, they saw my potential, they saw my leadership and pushed me to be greater.”
         
Learning alongside leaders of Collin, she noticed some gaps of student body representation. 
         
“I learned about the Student Government Association (SGA) and all its untapped potential. I wanted to grow this organization,” Samar said. 
         
Samar became SGA president for two terms, and in that time, she focused on growing the organization to new heights. With the help of her new, growing team, Collin College SGA became recognized at the state and regional levels.
         
“It’s one of the most rewarding things I took from my time at Collin,” Samar said. “We won so many awards. It was so significant to me.”  
         
Samar continued her journey at Collin with the end goal of transferring to a four-year college and eventually pursuing a postgraduate degree. Now a Southern Methodist University alumna, Samar is preparing for yet another venture in her educational journey.
         
“I went from someone who barely knew they were going to community college to getting accepted into two Ivy League universities, including Columbia and Cornell,” Samar said. “But now, 
my journey has brought me to Georgetown. My program will eventually take me abroad with the U.S. Agency for International Development.” 
         
Samar often refers to her journey as a metamorphic one, trying to navigate through each phase and finding support through it all at Collin College.
         
“The staff members, the professors, my mentors, they found this caterpillar that was in the mud and didn’t know what it was doing 
with life,” Samar said. “They helped build up a cocoon for this caterpillar, and then I turned into this butterfly who’s flourishing now.”
         
Samar credits her time spent at Collin as the basis for each opportunity that allowed her to spread her wings. 
         
“I really just want to let everyone know how grateful I am for Collin College,” Samar said. “There are so many students like me whose lives have been positively impacted because of what Collin offers.”