'Stories could shift perspectives': How one DSST alumna found her path in communications
When Ruth Woldemichael arrived at DSST: Cole in 2012, she was becoming part of something brand new....
11/03/26
'Stories could shift perspectives': How one DSST alumna found her path in communications
When Ruth Woldemichael arrived at DSST: Cole in 2012, she was becoming part of something brand new. As a member of Cole's founding class, she joined DSST when the network was just three 6-12 schools, "or really 2.5," as she puts it, since Cole was still being built around her class.
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Topics: Alumni Stories
09/02/26
‘Someone has to do it, and I want it to be me’: How one DSST alumna found her path in aerospace
It was 7th grade, the world was in the middle of a pandemic, and Sammie Nguyen (Class of 2026) was sitting in front of a screen in an online classroom at DSST: College View. Her teacher, Ms. Crystal Purvis, now Dr. Purvis, was walking students through different engineering fields. One of them was aerospace.
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Topics: College Success, Alumni Stories, STEM Stories
03/17/26
Carried by community: DSST alumna Dr. Analisse Nava earns her doctorate - and honors her roots
She grew up in Green Valley Ranch (GVR), the same neighborhood where she would one day teach. She sat in the same kinds of classrooms where she would later stand at the front. And when she crossed the stage to receive her doctoral degree, she did it knowing she wasn't walking alone. She was carried by every person who had believed in her along the way.
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Topics: Alumni Stories
02/05/26
From first‑gen student to community builder, Perla Bustillos Gutierrez shares how DSST taught her to lead on her own terms
As a first-generation student at DSST: Montview, college felt like a distant possibility for Perla Bustillos Gutierrez, not a guaranteed next step. But, through guidance, encouragement, and consistent support, Bustillos Gutierrez, Class of 2014, came to see that a four-year college was within reach, even before she fully knew how to imagine herself there.
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Topics: Alumni Stories