Living the dream, sharing success

Barnes says she is far from the cold day she walked out of UC’s Enrollment Services with tears streaming down her face. Unable to pay her tuition balance, she withdrew after exploring every possible option.

“I felt like a failure because this felt like my chance,” she shares. “I was afraid because my parents didn’t graduate, and I know other people who start college, and something happens, and they never make it.”

Barnes had arrived at UC feeling at home. Since the fifth grade, she had grown up attending enrichment programs on campus. Withdrawing from her academic career was heartbreaking.

“I thought to myself, ‘If I ever make it back here, and if I make it in life, I’m going to make sure this doesn’t happen to someone else,’” she says.

With what she describes as grit and resilience, she worked two jobs to pay off her debt. She re-enrolled, working three jobs to remain in school. She slept on an air mattress with a hole in it.

During a trip back to campus for Homecoming, Barnes recalled her promise to help others. Seeing her friends begin their philanthropic and leadership journeys at UC made her pause.

“I just felt a pull that it is time for me to roll up my sleeves and contribute,” she says. “I thought about all the students who perhaps had similar situations to mine and thought, ‘Oh, the time is now. I made it. I did it.’”

In addition to creating a scholarship, Barnes recently hosted UC Carl H. Lindner College of Business students and Dean Marianne Lewis at Bloomberg.

“It is important to me to make the time to invest in the university that gave so much to me,” she says of the visit.

This investment in others is a value Barnes has applied to her life and career, which, she points out, has not been linear. She worked for UC in Student Affairs, the Gen-1 Program, and the AACRC. She attended graduate school. She took time off to care for her mother during an illness. She was a nonprofit recruiter.

What’s remained constant is her ability and talent to identify gaps and create strategies and programming to fill those gaps. That’s what she’s doing now in her work at Bloomberg.

“I like to think that my background of being a first-generation student and from a lower economic background enables me to be empathetic and provide guidance,” she says. “For some of the candidates I work with, it is their first job. It is helpful for them to hear, ‘You belong here.’ My work is making sure that a talented candidate has equitable access.”

Creating a scholarship reflects her gratitude and her focus on lifting others.

“I want to be that bridge for someone who has a dream and just needs a little help to make that happen,” she says before she heads home to Brooklyn and the life of her dreams.