Perla Diosdado

During her time in high school, Perla Diosdado discovered the obstacles she would face being an undocumented student. As a single mother of two young girls, her mother had done the best thing she could by bringing Diosdado and her sister to the United States.

“I knew education was the way to have a better life, and I wanted to go to college,” she said. “However, being undocumented meant that I wasn’t eligible for financial aid or could receive scholarships.”

But during her senior year of high school, Diosdado discovered KC BizFest, which offers high school sophomores, juniors and seniors in the greater Kansas City area an opportunity to learn a variety of life skills and business techniques. The program focuses on helping students turn hobbies and skills into profit-making ventures, establish entrepreneurial and leadership goals, create plans for business and life and become effective leaders and team players. That is what led her to KCKCC.

“I decided to apply, and because of that program, I was awarded a full scholarship to attend KCKCC,” said Diosdado, who attended KCKCC from 2008 to 2011. “They didn’t decline my application because of my immigration status, and this for me was a miracle. That was the beginning of my college journey. Without that scholarship, I don’t think It would have been possible to finish college at the time I did.”

Going to a community college allowed Diosdado to stay home, which also meant she could work and go to school at the same time. She earned an associate of science degree from KCKCC, later receiving a bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University. She is now a civil engineer/project manager at Kimley Horn and president of the Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers-Kansas City.

Engineering, however, was not Diosdado’s first career path. She actually studied business when she first began classes at KCKCC. She said it was the mentorship she received at KCKCC that helped her ultimately find what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.

“Jeanne Crane Smith (former KCKCC employee) was the person that guided me while I attended KCKCC. She was my mentor, and I would go talk to her from time to time. I told her I wasn’t enjoying my classes. She asked me what I did enjoy, and I told her I really liked my math classes, so she suggested engineering,” Diosdado said. “After some research I decided that I would try civil engineering. Looking back at my time at KCKCC, I enjoyed the mentorship I received from Jeanne as well as the other organizations that helped me find a community of people striving for the same thing I was.”