Rio Hondo student, Lauren Marie Esqueda has managed to be a full time Rio Hondo student, work part time at Chipotle, write for magazines, work on radio and television broadcasts, maintain her own podcast “All Things Independent with Lauren Marie” on the El Paisano website, and still find time for her son, Ezra.

As a 21-year-old single mother living in the city of Whittier, Esqueda has been very involved both within the Rio Hondo community and off campus since she started school back in spring of 2011.

At the moment, her main focus is  to transfer by spring of 2015 and move up to San Jose to attend San Jose State University.

If this plan doesn’t work out, Esqueda has contemplated the idea of attending University of South California or University of California, San Diego. This plan wouldn’t falter, but would instead give the chance to experience something new such as moving out to the Los Angeles area while she gets her Bachelor’s degree.

Esqueda intends to major in Communications with emphasis in Journalism.

With this degree, she wants to find a career that would allow her to discover artists and help bring their work to light for the public to enjoy.

Esqueda explained how it is difficult to even have a social life at the moment while being a full time student and single mother.

She is on a strict schedule, waking up early every morning to get the day started. She says, “Even if it means not being able to sleep enough hours, I feel like I can accomplish things if I wake up early.”  Esqueda finds that most of her time spent is at work, school, or at home with Ezra.

Esqueda says that if it was not for her aunt, she would have a challenging time trying to get things done and find time to better herself for her child. Esqueda’s aunt helps her a lot with her hectic schedule, like watching Ezra.

For single parents trying to get their education she suggests a, “Good support system! They need to have a good support system, whether it is family or friends, someone who you can rely on.” Towards students who believe school is already hard enough she adds, “You never know until you try it,” and, “you should push yourself to the max”.