The Family Degree, Unapologetic Ambition, and the Standard of Somos Poder

On the office wall of Dr. Priscilla Aguilar hangs a photograph that anchors everything she does: an image of her grandmother on her hands and knees, laboring in the agricultural fields. To this day, her grandmother cannot speak of those days without tears. For Aguilar, that picture is not just family history, it is an altar of sacrifice, a compass of purpose, and an unshakeable standard of ganas. “When I go through moments where it all becomes overwhelming and you kind of want to give up, I think to myself: it’s hard, but it will never be as hard as that," Aguilar shared.

"I’m here with these blessed opportunities. I didn't come this far, to come this far.” Today, Aguilar serves as the Director of Administrative Operations in the Office of the President at Palo Alto College (PAC) within the Alamo Colleges District. As she completes her Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Interdisciplinary Leadership from Texas Lutheran University, she joins the rare 1% of Latinas nationwide who hold a doctoral degree.

But when Aguilar speaks of her trajectory, she does not speak through a lens of individual exceptionalism. She speaks of collective uplift, the weight of immigrant sacrifice, and the urgent necessity to rewrite the societal script for young brown women across San Antonio's South Side. Aguilar’s path through higher education began not with grand academic ambition, but with the quiet courage of her mother. Raised on San Antonio's South Side and a graduate of Southside High School, Aguilar initially felt college was an afterthought.

“I don't think college was really in my foresight," she admitted. "By no means did I graduate top of my class.” Around that time, her mother decided to return to school after a 15-year hiatus to earn her degree at Palo Alto College. Inspired by her mother’s courage, a 19-year-old Aguilar enrolled alongside her. They walked into classrooms together, sat in student government meetings together, and navigated the unknown terrain of college as a family unit.

Aguilar secured a part-time student work-study position in the office of then-Vice President of Student Success (now PAC President) Dr. Robert Garza, while also supporting Dr. Mike Flores (now Alamo Colleges Chancellor). Recognizing her potential, her mentors pushed her out of administrative comfort and into the Welcome Center to gain direct student-facing experience. That intentional guidance changed her life trajectory.

Aguilar completed her Associate of Arts in Communications at Palo Alto College in 2012, earned her Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Texas A&M University, San Antonio in 2014, and completed her Master of Education in Higher Education Leadership, Policy, and Administration at UTSA in 2017. She climbed the institutional ladder step by step: student worker, part-time staff, STEM and high school academic advisor, coordinator, and ultimately, the right hand to the college president.

When Aguilar began her doctoral research, she focused her dissertation on a reality she knew intimately: “Somos Poder: Unlocking Postsecondary Success and Shattering Barriers for Latino Students.” While initiatives like the Alamo Promise program removed tuition barriers, Aguilar observed that enrollment numbers did not magically skyrocket overnight. Through qualitative research and in-depth student interviews, her study revealed that for Latino communities, systemic barriers run far deeper than financial balance sheets.

“When I think of my degrees, I hold the weight of all the sacrifices that my grandparents made as immigrants and migrant workers, and the sacrifices of my parents," Aguilar explained. "For our students, a degree is viewed as a family degree. There is extreme pressure because failure is not an option. It is for all of them.” Her research illuminated the unseen emotional and cultural labor carried by first-generation Latino students, from contributing to household expenses and navigating transportation hurdles to bearing the collective hopes of an entire lineage.

True educational equity, Aguilar argues, requires institutions to support the whole family system rather than treating students as isolated individuals. If anyone embodies the endurance required to carry that collective weight, it is Aguilar herself. During the final stretches of her doctoral program, while managing full-time executive operations at the college, co-owning a small business with her husband, and raising children, Aguilar experienced a high-risk pregnancy.

Her daughter was born prematurely, leading to an agonizing season in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Between hospital visits, postpartum recovery, and caring for a newborn, Aguilar refused to drop her coursework. She recorded academic video presentations from hospital hallways and pushed through dissertation deadlines. “You find that little Southside Mexican girl who never even thought she’d be at this point, and you just refuse to let anything take you off the path you are supposed to be on,”

Aguilar said. “It is your own internal fire that gets you through.” Aguilar’s lived experience has made her an outspoken advocate for cultural and professional solidarity among women. Serving on the steering committee for the Latina Leadership Institute (San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce) and on the City of San Antonio’s Ready to Work Advisory Board, she is committed to dismantling scarcity mindsets. Early in her career, Aguilar encountered instances of the “Queen Bee syndrome”, an outdated mentality where established leaders gatekeep opportunities because they had to struggle to attain them.

Aguilar turned those painful experiences into a blueprint of how never to lead. “We already have enough obstacles and barriers set up against us. We cannot do that to each other,” Aguilar emphasized. “Any time we get through that door, we have an obligation to leave it wide open for the next person. We need to be at every table and in every room, but we must make sure we are bringing our fellow Latina with us.” Aguilar also challenges the myth of perfection imposed on mothers.

“I remember thinking, ‘I don't want to choose one thing or another. I want it all,’” she said. “I want motherhood, I want a career, I want both. We don't have to apologize for what we want. We can have all the versions of ourselves that we desire.” Aguilar fiercely rejects the common trope that successful individuals from underserved zip codes make it “in spite of” where they grew up. “I don't want to be a ‘despite of.’ I want to be the standard of what this community can produce,”

Aguilar stated. “My husband and I bought our home here. We are raising our children here. We are investing back into the South Side because this area is worth it.” This conviction is why La Prensa Texas is proud to celebrate Dr. Priscilla Aguilar as part of our We the Women movement. She reminds us that our roots are not deficits to overcome, but the very soil that grants us our strength. By shouting her wins, opening institutional doors, and honoring the ancestral hands that cleared the fields before her, Dr.

Priscilla Aguilar proves that when a Latina steps into her calling, she does not rise alone, she carries an entire community forward with her.