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Overcoming challenges and helping others

Biology alumna and lecturer Nahliel Ruiz shares her experience as a DACA recipient

By California State University, Bakersfield

February 22^nd, 2022

Until she was in high school, Nahliel Ruiz didn’t understand how she was different from her friends and classmates. She’d lived in Bakersfield almost all her life, growing up with friends here and earning good grades in school. But when other kids her age were excitedly making plans for college, starting their first jobs and getting their driver’s license, Ruiz realized she couldn’t enjoy those same rites of passage.

She was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and had arrived in the United States at 5 years old. Without a social security number or appropriate paperwork, all the things she dreamed of doing – just like any other teenager living in the U.S. – seemed to be just out of reach.

“As a younger teen, I wasn’t really worried about the world or what was going to happen to me in the future regarding my career,” Ruiz said. “I started noticing little things once I began my senior year. That's when I began to question myself. ‘What's going to happen with my life?’”

Now 27, Ruiz has accomplished everything she could only dream about as a teen, thanks to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the California Dream Act and, in no small part, her own persistent hard work and dedication. After graduating from California State University, Bakersfield with her bachelor’s degree in human biology and her master’s degree in biology, Ruiz is now teaching labs in the department that she feels has become her home.

Graduating from high school in 2012, Ruiz had to navigate an ever-changing landscape to find her way to a higher education. While her friends had a road map for each step of the process, already plenty complicated under ideal circumstances, Ruiz had to forge ahead on her own, first finding a modest scholarship to Bakersfield College for her first semester there. By her second term, President Obama passed DACA, giving Ruiz and others in her situation a more formal route to education, but one that was brand-new, with no one further along the course to help guide the way yet.

“As a Dreamer, I have overcome many obstacles in my career and life,” Ruiz said. “Now when people tell me, especially people who are in my situation, ‘Oh, I can’t go to school,’ I always answer, ‘You can go to school. You can do everything you want to do.’ They ask me, ‘How do I do this?’ Every time they say they can’t, I guide them. ‘Go here, do this … you’ll get there.’”

Getting there

Ruiz’s parents left Mexico in 2001, a difficult decision many in their place have had to make. Though her mother was in school to become a nurse there, moving the family to the United States would give them all a better chance to succeed.

“It was either stay there and have no progression, or move here and start a new life,” Ruiz explained. “So my parents left their old life behind, family and friends, and my mother ended up leaving her education. They immigrated to the United States with new dreams and plans for the future.”

Ruiz, her parents, and her younger brother first lived in Wilmington for a few months before moving to Bakersfield, where they have made a home and since rounded out their family with Ruiz’s youngest brother 12 years ago.

Within a month or two of living in the States, Ruiz had picked up conversational English. Enrolling at Wayside Elementary School, her family was prepared for the possibility she would be held back in order to help her catch up to her classmates, but a placement test found that wasn’t necessary.

Throughout Ruiz’s early education, at Sequoia Middle School and West High School, she did well in most of her classes but was especially drawn to science, finding learning those subjects to be more active than learning others.

Though her parents had warned her the family might eventually have to move back to Mexico because of their status, Ruiz lived her life like any other kid. Only when she realized her status was going to be a serious obstacle to getting her driver’s license, going to college and getting a job did she begin to understand what being undocumented really meant.

“They make it sound like you’re an alien, but I’ve done everything that everybody has,” Ruiz said. “I’ve been here since I was 5. If you take me back to my hometown, I have no idea how to navigate my way around, and there I would feel alienated.”

In her senior year, many students went through the process of applying for financial aid through FAFSA, but Ruiz didn’t have a social security number. At that time, there was no Dream Act.

“I actually went home crying that day, and I told my parents, ‘I don't think I'm going to be able to go to college,’ even though I always dreamed of going to college,” Ruiz said. “My parents were supportive of my education, and they told me we would find a way for me to continue my education. I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to make my parents proud.”

Overcoming challenges and helping others

Falling in love with biology

Fortunately, Ruiz was eventually able to enroll at Bakersfield College after talking to “millions of people” – a hyperbole, sure, but one that illustrates the frustration of looking for answers when there aren’t really any to be found. Without the Dream Act, she had to pay out-of-state tuition for the first semester but had a scholarship to help.

By her next semester, Ruiz was able to take advantage of DACA and the California Dream Act, allowing her to attend college and pay as a resident. With that settled, she could begin to think a little further into the future and weighed what she wanted to do. She first thought about becoming a nurse, following the path her mother had first set out on back home in Mexico, but realized it wasn’t what she enjoyed.

A prerequisite human anatomy class with Professor Chad Newton at BC changed her life.

“It was a really hard class,” she said, “but that’s where I fell in love with biology.”

After earning her associate degree in human biology, Ruiz started the process of transferring to CSUB. She didn’t know how far she would be able to go as a Dreamer but took everything one step at a time. One of her first classes as a CSUB student was with Dr. Kathleen Szick on cell biology.

“I was freaking out,” Ruiz remembered. “I was, like, ‘Oh my God. This class is even harder than the ones I took at BC.’ But I pushed myself and told myself that everything was going to be OK. From there, I took all the different biology courses. All the biology faculty and staff made a huge impact on me.”

Dr. Szick taught Ruiz in several courses, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. She remembers her as a student unafraid to ask questions and willing to put in the work to succeed.

“What I was most impressed with was her steady improvement over time,” Dr. Szick said. “She was able to modify her ways of learning and was able to adapt to each class as they continued to challenge her. She was always engaged, and it was clear that she was eager to learn.”

Ruiz’s time at CSUB furthered her love for biology, but it was transformative in another way too: it’s where she learned to embrace herself for who she is after struggling with her status in high school.

“I think my self-esteem improved when I started being open about it and when I actually wanted to make a difference in other people’s lives, and that was sometime when I was at CSUB,” Ruiz said. “I don’t know when, but one day I just started talking about it.”

After graduating with her bachelor’s degree in 2017, Ruiz worked for the Kern County Department of Child Support Services. It was a good job and paid well, but her love of biology never went away. Eventually, with encouragement from Dr. Brandon Pratt in the CSUB biology department, Ruiz decided to take the leap and apply.

“I'm living pretty good right now with money, but I'm not happy,” Ruiz recalled of that time in her life and considering her options. “I made my decision. It probably took like 10 seconds. I was like, ‘No, I'm going to graduate school and I'm going to pursue what I love.’”

Dr. Pratt was glad Ruiz decided to continue her education with the master’s program, calling her a deeply curious student with a positive outlook.

“Nahliel has had to overcome many challenges to attain her biology degrees,” Dr. Pratt said. “It is a testament to her talent and extra hard work that she has been able to achieve so much academically and now professionally in a short time period. She embodies so much of what the CSUB faculty are trying to accomplish for our students, and she has earned and deserves all of her success.”

Because Ruiz earned her master’s degree through the non-thesis track, she wasn’t required to do research, but she still wanted hands-on lab experience and needed a few extra units. She became a research assistant in Dr. Szick’s laboratory, where her professor was struck by her work ethic.

“I was completely blown away with her drive and dedication,” Dr. Szick said. “Often, when students need additional units and ask to participate in research to get those units, they are just doing it ‘because they have to,’ and that was not the case with Nahliel at all. She not only put in the amount of ‘required’ time but went above and beyond; she was eager and anxious to learn and did an amazing job.”

'CSUB is my home'

In addition to working in Dr. Szick’s lab, Ruiz also spent some of her time in the program as a teaching assistant, where she realized a love of teaching. Leading up to her first day as a TA, the thought of not knowing what to say while her students just stared at her made her anxious, but her worries turned out to be unnecessary.

“When I stepped foot in the lab, everything seemed natural,” she said. “I wasn’t frightened. It was like I was meant to be there."

Including her time working as a TA, Ruiz has taught at CSUB for three years. As a lecturer, she teaches several lab courses here on campus, as well as another class at West Hills Community College. In addition to teaching, she’s also worked as a lab technician in the oil industry since 2017, and she is currently in a faculty diversity program at BC where she is learning more about what makes a good educator.

Ruiz feels she has found her calling in teaching.

“Honestly, ever since I’ve been teaching at Cal State, I just love it there,” Ruiz said. “It’s where I grew up, mentally. That’s where I want to teach. I just feel like CSUB is my home.”

Ruiz credits CSUB biology chair Dr. Paul Smith for being another influential figure in her life. She appreciates his help, patience and belief in her as a lecturer.

“Dr. Smith has provided me with lots of guidance and insight to becoming a better educator,” she said. “Faculty members like him make me want to continue my career at CSUB and keep learning from professionals like him.”

Though her status as a DACA recipient has never come up in any of her classes, Ruiz makes it a point to tell her students they can come to her for anything, related to the class or not, and that she will help them navigate the various resources CSUB offers. That now includes the Dreamers Resource Center, which opened in 2019 to help students who are undocumented, DACA recipients or from mixed-status families.

“I was happy when they opened that,” Ruiz said. “That is something that could help students to open up and it provides other resources as well. That’s going to make a significant positive impact on everybody.”

In opening up about her status, Ruiz has found she’s been able to help people in the same situation, especially when it comes to applying for college.

“I love giving advice and helping people achieve their dreams,” Ruiz said, adding that her middle brother is also a DACA recipient whom she has helped through the process. “He has followed my footsteps and has graduated from CSUB as well, obtaining a bachelor’s degree in communication. I feel like I have set a great example for both of my siblings.”

One lesson she tries to impart is persistence, even in the face of uncertainty. It’s one she recently had to remember herself, when her DACA renewal took longer than expected to be approved, coming right down to the wire for the paperwork she needed to submit for work.

“It is scary because you don’t know what’s going to happen, but if you’re always living in fear, you are not living,” she said. “You have to keep going, work hard and persist. Being surrounded by a great support system is what allows me to keep pushing through all obstacles.”

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Footnotes

Story by Kelly Ardis, communications specialist, School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering (NSME); Photos by Juan Rodriguez, photographer/videographer, and provided by Nahliel Ruiz

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FootNotes

Story by Kelly Ardis, communications specialist, School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering (NSME); Photos by Juan Rodriguez, photographer/videographer, and provided by Nahliel Ruiz

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