A few weeks ago UTSA held it’s annual For The Kids dance marathon. This marathon helps families battling pediatric cancer. Meet one of the women who made that dance marathon possible.
Name: Aleera Marie Barrera
Nicknames: Leerie, Lee Lee
Class of: 2016
Major: Kinesiology
Hometown: Rio Grande City
Relationship Status: Single
Student Involvement: Operations Chair for For The Kids, Campus Outreach for Catholic Student Association, and Rowdy Awakening #1 Coordinator
What made you want to get involved with For The Kids (FTK)?
Freshman year I took an honors course called community service so that class challenged me to do community service so I started off with joining VOICES but I wasn’t sure if I was going to have enough hours for the class so that’s why I joined FTK to begin with but seeing what the organization did and how I had a part in it really impacted me so that’s why I decided to stay.
What is one of the best memories you have with FTK?
That first year, experiencing my first dance marathon it’s something that I really can’t explain. I got to see everything that we do come together. The way FTK works is we’re broken down into different comities and everyone is doing their own thing, it’s not until the dance marathon that we get to see the fruits of our labor. I also got to donate my hair that first dance marathon so that was something very humbling for me because I had been growing it out for three years and getting to cut it off was very enlightening.
FTK Dance marathon had a goal of $60K, how did it feel to surpass that goal and raise $70k?
I was in shock and cried of happiness. I was just tearing up and was beyond excited. Last year we made $54k and the year before was $50k so from 50 to 54 was reasonable but then to go from 54 to 70 was crazy!
Why did you decide to pursue kinesiology?
I’m just fascinated with the human body and how it works. At the time I started school I wanted to do physical therapy so I figured that kinesiology would help me learn what I needed to know about how the body moves and functions. I felt like I was going to get more of the anatomy side rather than if I would have done biology. Kinesiology really brought me to the human aspect of it rather than the cellular level.
Do you know a UTSA student who is doing big things? Contact us to feature them!