DENVER — Tiffany Christian will be graduating from the University of Denver with a degree in sociology - a goal that didn’t seem possible to reach when she was a teenager.
“Independent, alone, surviving. Those are the words I would use to describe my teen years,” Christian said.
Christian said her parents weren’t around too much, and she didn’t see any reason to stay at home.
“I started learning all the places I could just go and hang out, and it just turned into I would rather be on the streets or even hopping around in teen shelters or group homes than be at home,” Christian said.
For years, she bounced around different schools, group homes and lock-down facilities. She slept on the streets and in shelters. She even served some time in jail.
“I caught a felony (because) I was hanging out with some people and super naive and just dumb,” Christian said.
In her 20s she had a daughter and eventually earned her GED. She wanted to turn her life around and enrolled in Community College of Aurora, where she took her first class in sociology. It was just one step in the journey to earning her associate’s degree and realizing she wanted to learn more.
“I was homeless at one point in time. I lost my license, I was a mom, I was working two jobs,” Christian said. “So I went to my advisor and I said, ‘what’s next…what am I doing next?’”
Her advisor encouraged her to consider transferring to the University of Denver. To Christian, DU was an unlikely fit.
“I always that I wouldn’t fit in, the tuition is too expensive,” Christian said. “There’s all these reasons why I could not do it, (and) I ended up turning it into that’s the reason why I should go.”
At DU, Christian is majoring in sociology with a minor in communications. She will be graduating in a few months with experience she hopes she can pass along.
“I saw sociology from my own lens at that time to where it described my life,” Christian said. “To let other people know that relationships and families are important, and to be able to walk that out and I’m living it right now, that’s now my past has shaped who I am today."
Christian said that she's looking forward to law school one day, but she's also simply excited to get a job, save money and go on her first vacation.
More from Next with Kyle Clark: