After Brenda Arreola left college more than 27 years ago to focus on the birth of her twin daughters, she never imagined she would one day pick up where she left off and graduate not once, but twice, alongside them.
“Who can say that they have [walked the stage] twice in their lifetime with their daughters?” Brenda Arreola said. “It’s a privilege and an honor.”
Arreola and her twins Danae and Daena Arreola-Sanchez crossed the stage together on Wednesday morning as recipients of a Bachelors of Applied Technology in Management from Palo Alto College.
They were among the more than 1,300 PAC students who graduated this spring with certificates and undergraduate degrees.
Brenda Arreola, now 50, recalls a time when she was bouncing back and forth between Palo Alto College and San Antonio College pursuing an associate degree in criminal justice. But after she got married, the high-risk pregnancy took priority and she dedicated her time to working, raising and eventually homeschooling her daughters after eighth grade.
According to a study by the national nonprofit organization Young Invincibles, only one-third of student parents earn a college degree or certificate within six years of enrollment, and their chances of completing a degree or certificate program reduce by about 50 percent with each additional child.
Continuing her education seemed like a long forgotten dream for Arreola, until her daughters were ready to enter college themselves.
“When I took them to take an entry test to see if they were college ready, they came back to me and said, ‘Mom, get in with us and finish your associate with us,’” she recalls.
The three enrolled together and 10 years ago, they crossed the stage during Palo Alto College’s graduation together for the first time.
The family then paused to focus on growing the twins’ custom cakes and cookies business, Breezy Winds Cakery, which they had started at the age of 14.
“We started from home, pretty much as a hobby,” Daena Arreola-Sanchez said. “Then when we turned 16 we were like, ‘We need a job, we need to help our parents.’ So we started advertising on Facebook and it kind of snowballed from there.”
Through social media and word of mouth, the twins had slowly built a strong customer base for their bakery, and in 2020 they opened their brick-and-mortar location in Poteet.
Their business became the main source of income for the sisters, while their mom worked full-time jobs and jumped in to help whenever they needed her.
They didn’t imagine that soon after their grand opening, the coronavirus pandemic would force them to readjust. Social distancing in a small bakery became nearly impossible, so they switched to window pickup only, then orders began to dwindle as more people stayed home and some experimented with baking as a hobby.
The twins, now 27, managed to keep their business running and started to look for other income opportunities, but never let go of their desire to continue their education. Daena Arreola-Sanchez returned to Palo Alto College and landed a work-study position in the business department, a position that became the catalyst to their return to college.
“It opened a lot of doors for me and opportunities,” she said. “I started networking with a lot of people and it helped me grow as a person.”
Through this role she became familiar with Palo Alto College’s first bachelor degree offering, a Bachelor of Applied Technology in Management that launched in 2024. The hybrid or fully online option allowed them to choose a concentration in business and had the flexibility they needed to continue working.
“I thought, ‘If I can do it, my sister and my mom can do it,’” Daena Arreola-Sanchez said.
For years the twins had learned to manage a business on their own, via trial and error, they said, and all of a sudden they had the opportunity to gain knowledge they craved all along and earn a bachelor’s degree while at it.
“When she brought that up I felt like it made sense to go into the program because we would learn more about how to run a business, how to operate it. In a way this was something we needed,” said Danae Arreola-Sanchez.
Their mom also jumped on board, and they became each other’s most important support system both at home and at school.
While Daena Arreola-Sanchez is considering continuing on to earn a master’s degree, her sister thinks she’ll focus on their small business for a while to implement all that they’ve learned. Brenda Arreola says she thinks a teaching certification might be a good next step for her, but knows the sky is the limit for her daughters.
“She was my motivation,” Danae Arreola-Sanchez said. “I would see my mom tired, stressed and still going at it and I would think ‘If she can do it, then I really can do it, I have no excuses.’”
The San Antonio Report partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
