"An Awakening" for a Transfer Student

Veteran. ESL student. Diesel mechanic. Community college alum. Luis Herrera, a senior majoring in economics and minoring in Latino Studies, has played many roles over the course of his life. Born in Detroit and raised across borders, he spent his childhood in Monterrey, Mexico; Corpus Christi and Houston, Texas; and Detroit, Michigan. In his family, Herrera is the first person to graduate from high school, as well as the first person to pursue higher education. 

But his path to LSA, Herrera reflects, was a “difficult journey.” In high school, Herrera was an ESL student, and he struggled academically. He didn’t have postgraduate role models to follow because many of his family members worked in the service industry as dishwashers or cooks, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to follow that career path. During his senior year at Western International High School in southwest Detroit, Herrera began speaking to a military recruiter, which led to his enlistment in the U.S. Army. 

Herrera served for three years, then found a career as a diesel mechanic while remaining in the U.S. Army Reserve. He decided to start classes at Schoolcraft College in Livonia, Michigan—essentially retaking courses from high school to get him used to a rigorous course load again. “I had to build everything back up,” he remembers. While he was working and studying in Livonia, he met his current girlfriend, Isabel Lopez. 

At the time, Lopez was enrolled at U-M School of Information, where she eventually graduated with her B.S. in information analysis in 2024 and her M.S. in information in 2025. She encouraged Herrera to apply to the College of LSA, even though he had his doubts. “Why should I even apply?” he asked her. “There’s no point. I wasn’t thinking that U-M would look at me as a good candidate.” 

Lopez disagreed wholeheartedly. “She always used to tell me that she could see potential in everything I’ve done and what I’ve been through,” Herrera reflects. 

Thanks to the support of Lopez, other friends, and his community college professors, as well as strong academic outcomes at Schoolcraft, Herrera honed his application to LSA and was accepted. Still, though, Herrera had complicated feelings about attending a four-year university. “I used to feel embarrassed about my background,” he says. “My brothers and sisters had to work at a young age, so they didn’t have the opportunity to be able to pursue that step.” He wasn’t sure how he would fit in at LSA, especially as a nontraditional student.

His first week on campus, Herrera faced a major obstacle: passing math classes for his economics major. He put in his time at the Mathematics Learning Center, also known as the Math Lab, in order to stay afloat—which he did. But academics weren’t the only roadblock. 

“I felt like an outcast,” he says. “I felt like I didn’t belong in this space. I already lived a life, served in the military, and now I’m back in school with people that just graduated from high school.” 

To supplement his studies, Herrera joined the wrestling club and the Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA), but the campus extracurricular that made him feel most at home was working as a transfer student ambassador. He connected with Justin Villanueva, transfer recruiting coordinator, who made him feel welcome as a student and valuable as a resource for future transfers. 

“I love it,” Herrera says, speaking fondly of his ability to connect with other older community college students who come to LSA many years after graduating from high school. After he graduates in May 2027, Herrera hopes to pursue a career in finance. He isn’t sure whether he’ll stay in the Metro Detroit area or go further afield after commencement. 

In addition to his economics major, Herrera chose to minor in Latina/o studies. An introductory course with Professor William Calvo-Quirós was an “awakening.” After years of feeling humiliation but not understanding why, Herrera began to gain the language to explore his identity and the history of nonwhite ethnicities in the United States. In one of his classes, he learned about ESL students—many of whom never get the opportunity to pursue higher education. Herrera suddenly saw himself and his life experience from another perspective.

“It made me think, ‘Why do I feel embarrassed of this heritage and these challenges that my parents went through?’” he remembers. “I used to feel ashamed of my background, but since then, I’ve been proud and open and willing to tell people about it.”

Photo by Doug Coombe