#1 Grad to #1 Cheerleader: Anabel Fernandez inspires with ASU Prep

Anabel Fernandez is a mother of three, and like many parents her life revolves around her kids and their futures. When she and her husband Alex aren’t busy, they love to spend time with their three boys: Christian, Andrew and Giovanni, doing everything from bike rides to board games. As a loving mother she wants to create great opportunities for her children. 

Like many parents, she cares about supporting her children’s education so they can create opportunities for themselves. As the Assistant Director of Recruitment and Admissions for ASU Preparatory Academy, she is a staunch advocate for pursuing higher education. Her two youngest attend Arizona State University Preparatory Academy, and her oldest, a senior, has eyes to enroll as a first-year in ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering come fall 2025. 

She is also the daughter of immigrants and is a first generation graduate, meaning she understands quite personally the value of both a higher education, and the internal value of fighting hard to achieve it. She saw what her parents fought through to support her, and as a loving daughter, wants to continually uphold that.

And even with all that background, you’d still think “there has to be something more to it”, with just how passionately Anabel Fernandez champions bringing educational opportunities to minority students. 

“I am a first generation graduate with not just immediate family, but cousins. I mean, first one. So it's a big deal,” Fernandez said. 

Fernandez’s achievements are even bigger than her own, as since then she has helped to inspire many of her family members to get a degree in higher education. She understands that many people value education, but spoke to the specific importance it has had in her family. 

“My parents were very hardworking individuals,” Fernandez continued. “Who really just just grilled into our minds that ‘I'm not able to provide you with much, but what I can do is support you in any way, shape or form to make sure that you continue your education past high school and go to a college’ just because they knew the opportunities that that would bring to us.” 

While education is an amazing path forward for many people, for Fernandez and many other immigrants, it is one of the only paths forward to achieving equitable opportunities. 

“Education has always been such a big part of my family,” Fernandez explained. “They really just engraved the importance of school coming from an immigrant family, the value that school has and opportunities that it brings to those in this country, especially minorities.”

“I'm a big champion and a big believer that higher education and continuing education brings so many opportunities. And for minorities or those who come from other countries and are looking for those opportunities here, we don't take that for granted.” 

Fernandez speaks to a deep-seeded gratitude she has for her parents, and both the lessons and opportunities they provided. She particularly understands just how important having someone who believes in you is, especially for young immigrants and minorities, and how much those relationships can inspire.   

“I was a Spanish speaker, so English is my second language,” Fernandez said. “Back (in elementary school), I had a teacher. Her name is Mrs. Arroyos. She was the most incredible person.”

“I, till this day, believe that because of her, I am a teacher. She believed in me. And for a student who comes to this country, not really knowing the language, not knowing the culture and feeling like that person understands you and just gets you, it's, it's powerful.”

Even with this support, getting into a university was still a difficult task for Fernandez, and not at all for a lack of trying. She spoke to the difficulty of affording college from her family's position, and how hard she had to work to make it happen. 

“We weren't able to afford going into a university right out of high school,” Fernandez explained. “So I just took what I had and went to Chandler-Gilbert Community College for two years and worked super hard to try to get some scholarships to get into the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College.”

“I was accepted in 2002, fall of 2002,” Fernandez continued. “I came to ASU with a full-ride scholarship. Luckily I was not required to pay anything because I knew I wouldn't have been able to afford it. My family wouldn't. Those opportunities that I had because of ASU and everything that it offered to me, I hold very dear to my heart. I am ASU. And now my kids are ASU.”

“The fact that I graduated from ASU, I feel like I have ASU in my blood.”

Not just in her blood. ASU is also proudly written on her diploma, as Fernandez graduated in 2005 from the Mary Lou Fulton College with her undergraduate degree in elementary education.

“I graduated summa cum laude as a teacher from Fulton College,” Fernandez exclaimed. “Those things for me that, again, maybe for someone else, it's not a big deal. But for my family, for my parents, my siblings and myself, they were such big milestones and I hold them so dear that it just made me love ASU and all that it stands for.”

“My graduation, I mean, it was bigger than a wedding,” Fernandez continued. “Just seeing my parents, and them seeing their daughter walk across that stage graduating from a university, that's something that they've always pushed for. I mean, they're grandparents, they have other kids, but they said that is one of their proudest moments as parents. Their first kid and how I paved the path for my younger siblings. So that to me is something, a day I cherish forever.” 

Through years of her own hard-work in overcoming challenges, Fernandez still remains grateful to those who have helped support her. An environment of gratitude that not only helps motivate her optimistic outlook, but guides her path forward.

“I graduated from Teachers College because I wanted to give back,” Fernandez remarked. “I had an impactful teacher when I was in elementary school and I wanted to do the same for those kids that I taught. And now I don't teach, but working at ASU Prep Academy, I have the ability to be able to reach out to different populations and really just offer what ASU Prep Academy is about and all the amazing opportunities that come with it.”

“We offer college courses at no cost to these kids. And for many, and I speak for myself, that was something that was not an opportunity. And if it was, I would have taken it in a heartbeat.”

ASU Prep has been an outlet for Fernndez to not only champion her beliefs in higher education, but to do so in a way that can support students coming from backgrounds similar to hers. 

“I'm such a big supporter and a cheerleader for Prep Academy,” Fernandez said. “I believe in our mission and in our charter, especially the line of ‘measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed.’ That to me is such a powerful statement and it touches so many people in so many populations, no matter what your background is.” 

While Fernandez now works with ASU Prep Academy as one of its fiercest cheerleaders, she has always held these beliefs of inclusion, and demonstrated that in her work after college. Returning to her alma mater San Marcos elementary school, Fernandez looked to inspire students in the same way Mrs. Arroyos inspired her. 

“I did my student teaching there as a fourth grade teacher,” Fernandez said. “Some of the teachers that were there when I attended, were still teaching. “

“There were opportunities where they had me give a presentation at a pep assembly, because a lot of these kids look like me and they sounded like me when I was their age, and to show them, ‘I have the exact same qualities that you do. So if I could do it, you could do it.’ I love that. I love that I was able to give back. Even if I made a difference with just one kid, that to me was why it's special.” 

While Fernandez has undoubtedly been making a difference in the lives of many as she continues to champion higher education, outside her relentless work at ASU Prep, she mainly focuses on three. 

“Now I'm a mom of three kids. I have three boys,” Fernandez remarked. “Currently, my oldest is a senior. So same thing as my parents, I've instilled the importance of education with all of my kids. My senior this year, just last week, has applied to ASU College of Engineering. So for us, it's such a big deal, and for me as a mom, now it is coming full circle.”

While a lot can be argued about Fernandez’s resilience, commitment and determination, she humbly suggests one thing as being the biggest factor to her success.

“A support system is incredibly helpful. That would probably be key, having someone who believes in you having that champion, the rally, the cheerleader. When you're down, they will pick you up., Because let me tell you, there are going to be times where life gets rough, and just having someone there to believe in you, even when the entire world doesn't believe in you, can help be that support.” 

A support system can help carry you through the worst of challenges. This is why ASU and ASU Prep work hard providing as much support and as many resources as they can to those looking toward higher education, and why people like Fernandez chose to work there.

It can be hard to truly stress the importance of supporting underrepresented communities in higher education. It can be hard to make sure these resources are being efficiently allocated. And it can be even harder sometimes to motivate and show people that there are possible pathways for people of any background to achieve a college degree.

That being said, with people like Anabel Fernandez and the ASU Prep team supporting this process, it doesn’t matter how hard it gets, because there is someone there ready to help.