As the month of March comes to a close, we would like to wrap up Women’s History Month by highlighting former Alumni Scholarship recipient Maria Serpas (’20). After coming to the United States as an undocumented immigrant and becoming a teen mom, Maria graduated from Cal State LA through hard work and perseverance, and now owns her own tutoring business, Wiz Kid Tutor. Maria cites her Alumni Scholarship as one of the determining factors that led her to become more confident in her abilities.
We thank Maria for continuing to pay her experience forward through volunteering with the University and as a member of the Alumni Scholarship Committee. Read on to learn more about Maria's journey.
What inspired you to continue your college education later in life?
I come from a history of adversity, but with every hardship came a new opportunity for me to learn how to fight through it. I was a teen mom at the age of 15 and I was an immigrant child who became an illegal citizen when I turned 18. I was also a survivor of domestic violence, and those are just to name a few things. But with every triumph I learned how to empower myself and I knew that experience alone was not sufficient enough for me to keep growing, so I needed education to help me understand those experiences and to create a new path for my daughter to follow. When I did that, it just opened up so many different doors. When my daughter graduated high school and was actually accepted into Cal State LA, I realized the path that I had created for her to follow paid off. And now I needed to continue for myself. It was no longer to create a path for her but now was a path for myself and a journey that I would go on for my own will. A year after she started at the University is when I began attending Cal State LA.
How did the Alumni Scholarship you received in 2019 make a difference in your education and professional pursuits?
When I was selected for the Alumni Scholarship it really boosted my trust and confidence that I was on the right path in the right university. I felt proud to be a Golden Eagle and soared my way to graduation. And I stand by what I said during my scholarship interview. I want to help students continue to pursue their own education. The Alumni Scholarship helped fund the rest of my courses and it definitely helped me get more connected to Cal State LA. Cal State LA is so dear and treasured to me. I’m just so proud to come from this University.
What inspired you to start your own business?
Being accepted into Cal State LA inspired me to dedicate my entire time to establishing my own business. I had been a tutor for about eight years prior to starting school and it was always just a side business to earn a little extra income. When I decided it was time for me to go back to school, I didn’t want to have anything interrupt my education, so I had to make a choice and when I made the decision to pursue my education I told myself that school would be my priority and I could not let a job hold me back. If I really wanted that flexibility, I had to make my own business grow and work. A couple of months before I began at Cal State LA, I resigned from an amazing career with a non-profit organization and began networking and promoting myself. I began to get a good clientele base going and I was able to create a work schedule that revolved around my course schedule. I just didn’t want anything to interrupt my education. All the crazy days and sleepless nights trying to complete my assignments is what really inspired me to go full force with my tutoring business. It’s been five years of being completely on my own with my tutoring and I haven’t looked back.
What is Wiz Kid Tutor’s mission?
Wiz Kid Tutor’s mission is to empower students to have confidence in their own abilities through the support that I give them and the individualized lessons that I cultivate for them based on their own learning styles, and to also have fun while learning. They begin to find that intrinsic motivation and believe in themselves enough to keep learning and growing. My vision is actually to create a thirst for lifelong learning. Just this morning I had a student tell me that math isn’t hard anymore. She was at a D when I first started tutoring her and now she’s at an A, and it’s only been about six months since I first started working with her.
What advice do you have for current students or fellow alumni who are interested in becoming entrepreneurs?
I say go for it! There’s a reason you have this idea and it’s calling you. Answer that call. But if you’re like me and you have to plan it out, that’s okay. Set a deadline for yourself. That’s extremely important because you’ll look back one day and think, ‘I should have started back then.’ So, just go for it. It’s going to be tough, but there’s nobody better to do it than you.
What advice do you have for those returning to college after taking time off?
I say you’re the richest one there. You get to be the one with the most experience and that is so powerful during your journey. In the majority of my classes, I was either the oldest or among one of the few, and I saw some of my classmates as my children. They were my daughter’s age, so I often found myself lending support and encouragement to keep them going. You may think you’re not inspiring people, but you really are. It also helped me so much in understanding my daughter’s generation. We are not that far apart in age, but there are differences. I was able to see many different perspectives and experiences. That was such a magical time that I know I’ll forever be a Golden Eagle.
Why do you think volunteering and giving back to the community are important?
Doing that and going out there really reminds me of my upbringing and my struggles. It keeps me humble. I find myself drawn to the youth and women because I always wanted someone in my life who understood what I was going through, although I really couldn’t find anyone like that. So I became one for others. In my last semester at Cal State LA, I was president of the Child Development Club. We connected with the community and created memories with those who needed a sense of belonging. I was also facilitator for the town hall meetings for those who were going into their first semester at Cal State LA. Many of the students expressed afterwards that they felt more connected to the University. I think that coming back and giving a piece of yourself to the community and showing all that you’ve learned is so powerful.
I’d like to quote Maya Angelou who said, “…people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel,” and Cal State LA made me feel invigorated. I will never forget that. And I’d like to end things by saying: Stay strong. You’re not alone and there’s always somebody willing and able to listen. There’s a lot of hurt right now in the world and there’s a lot of pain, but we’re in this together.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.