Diana Estrada: a first-gen student with ‘a servant’s heart’

BY GAVIN PATRICK / Multimedia Journalist

Diana Estrada was still in her mother’s belly when her parents crossed the border into the United States.
 

They were just 24. Their whole lives were ahead of them. They only knew Spanish. They never finished college. All but one family member still lived in Mexico.
 

In Diana’s words, “they left everything behind.”
 

It was time to move on. They were preparing to start a family of their own and wanted to leave it in a better place than they came from.
 

“They had to work two, sometimes three jobs at a time,” Diana said. “So, I just wanted to better myself and make sure those sacrifices didn’t go to waste.”
 

Diana was born just two months after her parents settled in Stephenville. Fast-forward 22 years, and she is graduating from Tarleton State University as a first-generation student.
 

Safe to say, the move was worth it.
 

“That was always the plan since they came to the U.S.,” Diana said. “And I never doubted throughout grade school that I’d go to college.”
 

It may be normal nowadays to know a first-generation student. Today, one third of college students are first-gen, and of that group, 70% are Latino, according to U.S. News & World Report.
 

Diana is a proud member of that 70%. She graduates Tarleton with a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Science, plus a minor in Spanish, and will apply for dental school in the summer, hoping to start the following summer in 2026.
 

Diana and her cousin, Marvin -- who also graduates Tarleton this month, with an accounting degree -- mark the second and third of her generation to graduate college. Soon, that number could be eight, as six of her other cousins are currently pursuing college degrees.
 

Family is one of the biggest parts of Diana’s life, in every sense of the word. Of her mom’s half (her dad’s side lives in Mexico), Diana has a combined eight aunts and uncles, 20 cousins, plus her younger brother and sister -- Natalie, who’s 16, and Mateo, who’s 8.
 

Growing up, Diana would spend every holiday with her mom’s side of the family. The hosts would rotate each time, and the love would spread accordingly, which, in Diana’s Mexican-American family, is always.
 

“We’re a very close-knit family. We’re pretty loud,” Diana said with a laugh. “So whenever we get together, it’s all the aunts in the kitchen laughing, all the cousins in one room playing on whatever console we have and all the dads in the living room doing whatever dads do. It’s always been very fun.”
 

Diana sure does love her family. Part of what attracted her to dentistry is the work-life balance it brings. A lot of dental practices are only open four days a week, so with her time-off, it’s easy to see where that time would go.
 

Diana also pointed out the “attention to detail” it takes to be a dentist as what mainly attracted her. In her words, she’s “a control freak” and “like[s] to know what’s going on at all times” -- especially in people’s mouths, apparently.
 

In fact, Diana actually finds dentist appointments to be an enjoyable experience.
 

“I don’t know why, specifically, but oral health has always been something very important to me,” Diana said. “I always take very good care of my teeth, I make sure to floss every day. But specifically what made me want to become a dentist [is] seeing a couple of examples around Stephenville being a larger part of the community, not just helping people in the office. [That’s] what kind of guided me.”
 

That’s the thing with Diana -- she tends to put others first. A Tarleton faculty member who’s become close to Diana over the years, Dr. Faulkenberry, said it best:
 

She “has a servant’s heart.”
 

“She sees a need, and she works to find ways to fill that need -- not necessarily that she has to fill the need, but she finds ways to bring resources together to fill the needs,” Faulkenberry said. “She’s a forward thinker.”
 

Diana singled out Dr. Faulkenberry as a professor she connected with in her time at Tarleton, even though she never had a class with her.
 

“She was just somebody who I always saw on campus and I could always greet, and she would always have a smile on her face,” Diana said. “She made coming to Tarleton, as a student, a lot easier and a lot more welcoming.”
 

Faulkenberry, now the Dean of the Honors College, first met Diana a week before her first semester at STEM Basecamp. Incoming students from math, science and engineering fields were put through a “boot-camp” in math, and they heard presentations about academic success, campus resources and got to meet professors in the College of Science and Mathematics.
 

“I remember Diana being quiet,” Faulkenberry said, smiling. “She didn’t really talk a whole lot and was really kind of shy -- but very, very sweet, and I could tell that she was very bright and was going to do great things.”
 

That she did. Two years later, in the summer of 2023, Diana used her forward-thinking and created the “Women in STEM” club with a couple of her friends from the Honors College.
 

This is something Diana is very passionate about.
 

“What we hoped this club would do for our members is create a community, help create connections and build a sense of place for other students like us,” Diana said. “The founding members are all Biomedical Science majors, and we stuck together through the first few years of college. When we realized how helpful those kinds of connections were, we decided to expand that and provide that opportunity for everyone.”
 

In the first year and a half, the club has had many volunteer opportunities, it’s collaborated with other campus organizations and it’s also brought in guest speakers from around campus, some of whom talked about their struggles being a woman in a male-dominated field.
 

One day, Diana and another founding member, Jasmine Muñoz, approached Dr. Faulkenberry and asked if she would be a guest speaker one night. Let’s just say, they had her at hello.
 

“I was so stinkin’ proud of those young ladies for seeing a need and filling it with this organization that can benefit all students across campus,” Faulkenberry said. “It says ‘Women in STEM,’ but it’s open to any of the students who might be interested to find this sort of support group as they [navigate] being a student in STEM … I was just overjoyed.”
 

Heading the “Women in STEM” club is not the only impact Diana has made outside the classroom.
 

Since her sophomore year at Stephenville High School, Diana has been involved in Tarleton’s Upward Bound program. The program is one of three divisions in the university’s TRIO family, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, designed to help first-gen and low income students get to college.
 

Diana became very close with the Upward Bound faculty over the years. They helped her with schoolwork, prepare for the SAT and ACT, apply for college and scholarships -- and once 

Diana started at Tarleton, she was hired as a student-worker in the Upward Bound office.
 

“I help in whatever way is needed,” Diana said. “Right now, we’re going through our recruitment period, so I’ve been attending all those meetings. I [also] tutor the students that need help in different classes during our Saturday meetings.”
 

Diana, who turned 22 this month, hasn’t even scratched the surface of what her career will be in dentistry and, yet, is already giving back to her community. It’s a defining part of her character.
 

Diana’s story could not be told, either, without mentioning redemption.
 

Her family had redeemed itself before she was born, even, by finding new life in America. This year, Diana found her redemption in the classroom. To her credit, she wasn’t the first to make a D in Biochemistry.
 

“I will admit that I didn’t put in as much work as I probably should have,” Diana said. “It was, I think, a year ago … It was a rough semester, and I started to procrastinate a lot. I think it was just -- I was kind of tired of the repetitive [pattern of] going to class, going to labs, working. I was just getting tired of it, and I stopped putting as much focus on it. I started slacking a lot.”
 

It was an uncharacteristic failure for Diana, who had never failed a class in her life before this one. However, and predictably so, she retook Biochemistry this semester and bounced back with an A, with the final grades pending.
 

“That was a wake-up call, for sure,” Diana said. “It was a wake-up call [in] that it wasn’t gonna be as easy as I thought, but I was actually gonna have to push through some of these higher-level classes, [and] I was going to have to work for the grades I want.”
 

Diana credits her work-ethic to her parents, who, like mentioned before, sometimes had to work multiple jobs to provide for Diana and her siblings. But Diana also gives a big nod to her time in band, where she went on to become Drum Major, Clarinet Section Leader and “unofficial Quartermaster.”
 

“I started band in sixth grade, all the way through senior year of high school,” Diana said. “Band is really what allowed me to grow a lot both in leadership, socially, to develop my work ethic. It helps in so many tremendous ways. I made so many friends in there as well, so that helped a lot with the social aspect … My time in band was something I will forever be grateful for.”
 

Diana loved band so much that, “for a while,” she even considered majoring in music instead of Biomedical Science. In the end, though, she wasn’t quite sure of herself.
 

“I don’t think I was good enough,” Diana said with a laugh.
 

It’s clear where Diana’s heart resides. Ever since freshman biology class in high school, Diana knew she wanted to do something where she could “better understand how life works.” Even in her final semester, she felt her General Physiology class reinforce the interest she has in pursuing her career plan.
 

“Just in general, all my science classes -- they’re the ones that interest me the most,” Diana said. “So, I know I picked the right degree and know I am doing a degree for a career that I’ll actually enjoy.”
 

Along the way, Diana will never forget her Mexican heritage, which has, most definitely, shaped the person she’s become -- seen, in part, by her Spanish minor.
 

Tarleton’s Associate Professor of Spanish, Dr. Cecilia Marrugo, had classes with Diana over multiple semesters. They built a bond through their “shared love for the Spanish language and culture.” She also helped Diana with a project she did this semester to satisfy her Honors Contract.
 

“We developed a special connection through thoughtful classroom discussions, where Diana often brought fresh perspectives that challenged and inspired me and her classmates alike,” Marrugo said. “... She learned to navigate college life’s obstacles with resilience and determination, emerging as a well-rounded, thoughtful individual ready to make a positive impact on the world.”
 

Diana doesn’t like to brag about herself, but she sure has left her mark in so many ways in and out of the classroom. Her impact is felt by her family, friends, teachers and, probably, others she hasn’t even met.
 

Diana can be defined by many things, such as “intelligent,” “kind” and “patriotic,” along with, per Dr. Faulkenberry, her “sweet smile that can light up a room.”
 

All of these qualities will do Diana very well as she strives to, in her words, better her “little bubble of the world.”
 

“One thing that Dr. Faulkenberry always says is, ‘You can’t change the world, but you can change the part of the world that you are a part of,’” Diana said. “So, I guess that’s what I would strive for the most.”