Calvin News

“It was like I was in a world full of so many opportunities, but I didn’t have the key to open the door for those opportunities,” said Lexie Zuno. “And the opportunities were through a glass door. You see them and you hear about them, but you think ‘is it not for me?’”

Feeling stuck

After graduating from high school, Zuno felt stuck. “I grew up not knowing what life had for me. Going to school and seeing all of my peers circle on standardized testing that their parents have higher than a high school diploma, some bachelor’s degrees, some master’s degrees, I would always sit and look and say, ‘what’s below a high school diploma?’ My parents didn’t have that.”

Zuno was entering unchartered waters and while working in an aid position at a local school she met a woman named Anna who asked her a simple question that would change the trajectory of her life.

Invited to dream

“She was like, ‘hey, what are you doing school-wise?’ said Zuno. “I looked at her like she was crazy. I’m like ‘I can’t afford that. I can’t do that. I’m scraping by as it is. I don’t know where to start. My parents didn’t go to college. My parents didn’t graduate high school. What’s the big hype?’”

Anna then told Zuno about a program she heard was starting up at Calvin University. She said, “I think you’d be great for this program,” recalls Zuno.

So Anna brought Zuno to Calvin’s campus.

“I had never been on a college campus before and it was almost a surreal feeling,” said Zuno. “She [Anna] was like ‘you know, this could be you, you know going to classes.’ I was like ‘No. Calvin University? That’s crazy.’”

Shortly after her visit, Zuno met with Abbie Lipsker, director of continuing studies at Calvin, who told her about an application that was about to be sent out for the university’s Wayfinder program. The program is the state of Michigan’s first Clemente Course in the humanities, which is a transformative educational experience for adults facing economic and social barriers to higher education. It is offered off-campus in a neighboring zip code to the university in direct partnership with several community organizations. 

Taking a bold step

Zuno applied. And a couple of months later, she received a letter.

“That anticipation was quite agonizing,” said Zuno. “I ran home and showed my parents, and I’m like ‘I made it into Calvin’s program.’ My mom cried. My dad was ecstatic for me.”

In June, Zuno started in the inaugural cohort of the Wayfinder program.

“These women I’m studying alongside, each of their individualized stories leaves me breathless,” said Zuno. “All of us were dealt our own cards, kind of a hard hand to play with I’d say. But the perseverance in the room and the courage and the will to want to keep moving forward and break all of these generational curses down is so inspiring, and it makes you not want to stop. Everyone is rooting for each other and all these women are going to do amazing things.”

Access to endless opportunity

For Zuno, she’s no longer looking at opportunities through glass doors.

“Those doors are open now and I can pick what I want,” said Zuno. “It’s so crazy, once you get through that door you see all these opportunities and now you have a new problem, you don’t know what you want to do. There are so many options.”

Zuno is no longer stuck. She’s dreaming.

I am thinking ‘what option do I want?’ And they [Calvin professors] tell you that you can layer on options, it’s okay. And you find all these paths and all these jobs that you didn’t know existed,” said Zuno.

Inspiring future generations

While Zuno begins dreaming, she is keenly aware that her journey will have ripple effects.

“I hope to continue my education here at Calvin and one day be able to help someone like me, you know, be an inspiration,” said Zuno. “I want to show adults that it’s never too late. You don’t have to follow the timeline that you need to graduate high school, go to college, get married, have kids. Everyone’s timeline is different. You want to start school when you’re 25, 35, 45, you know the door can be opened.”

And she knows she is paving a way for her family as well.

“Everyone that comes after me will have someone to look up to,” said Zuno about her being a first-generation college student. “To be able to be that trailblazer almost is inspiring, it makes me not want to stop, it makes me want to reach my hand out to everyone all around who has similar stories, similar struggles, and be like, ‘hey, come with me, we got this, we are going to learn together and grow and we are going to make this world a better place.’”

While Zuno credits the Wayfinder program for setting a spark in her, she knows who set her on this path.

“Without God instilled in me I feel like I would have felt like I’m doomed, like there’s no hope. And he instills this faith and hope in me that this [Wayfinder program] is for me,” said Zuno.” And from the beginning he had this great plan set out for me that he was going to open those doors. He was the one who lit the light to these glass doors and is right here with me all along the way. On days that it seems difficult and easy to want to give up, a quick prayer to the man upstairs and all of a sudden, I feel better.”