MAV ROUNDUP

Dreams in Hand

UTA boosts alumna’s career goals

When Thelma Alanis (’22 MA, ’20 BA, History) was young, she drew pictures of herself in a courtroom. Law was her calling, and her family knew it, too.

“Esta va a ser una abogada!” her father would say in Spanish. “This one is going to be a lawyer.”

As an undergraduate student, Alanis was balancing her academic studies, her role as a mother to her 7-year-old daughter, and her demanding full-time shifts at American Airlines working in operations.

With such a busy life, she thought her opportunity to be a lawyer had passed. But then she met Amber White, director of UTA’s Pre-Law Center, at a student activity fair. For Alanis, it affirmed that UTA was where she was supposed to be.

“Amber told me, ‘You know, you could be any age and be a lawyer, right? You could major in anything and still be a lawyer,’” Alanis says. “It was the Pre-Law Center that convinced me to pursue becoming an attorney.”

Alanis says UTA was an ideal university for her needs as a working parent. The course schedule and UTA’s flexible online classes gave her time to study while her mother and husband helped at home.

“I already knew the flexibility that is offered here,” she says. “There would be times during my afternoon master’s class where I’d be listening to the lecture while folding laundry. It was awesome.”