Gabrielle de Encio

Student

“I want to encourage people with kids to discover all the possibilities open to them at SMC. You can find a way to make it here.”

The next time your workload gets you down, stack up your cares and woes against those of Gabrielle de Encio. She’s a single mom. She worked nearly full-time as the AS Director of Financial Support. She had a severe car accident, and was in and out of hospitals for months. She went through four roommates last semester. But through it all, she kept her GPA high enough to virtually guarantee her transfer to UCLA.

And all this was while commuting—three days a week—from San Diego.

In one of the greatest understatements ever made in a Schedule of Classes, Gabrielle describes her last three years as “a little stressful. But this is my final year, and I’m ready to move on,” she reports. “I was tempted to stay even another year, because I’ve loved it so much at SMC, and especially my work in the Student Government—it’s amazing what you can learn about political realities in that work,” she says. “And I’d advise anyone to join in with the clubs and activities at this college because they’re what really brings your whole experience here to life.” What SMC has brought to life for Gabrielle is a deep gratitude for the teachers she’s had with us.

“My Sociology teachers—Ms. Dishman and Mr. Massie—know everything. Their information was beyond all limits. And through what they taught me, I feel like I’m on the top of the world. And in Dr. Gunn’s Psychology class,” she continues, “I just fell in love with how she taught and how she was always there for her students. I feel that I am so ready to be a Social Psychologist because of what I’ve learned here,” she says. “And I’m thoroughly going to miss being at SMC.”

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