Many stu­dents find classes and study­ing to be over­whelm­ing, but toss hav­ing a child and work­ing three or four jobs into the mix and com­plet­ing school may sound impossible.

Ethan Pineda, senior in the biol­ogy pro­gram and pur­su­ing a career as a physician’s assis­tant, proves that this feat is accom­plish­able, and that Ferris is the per­fect place to do it.

Pineda ini­tially chose Ferris because of the cam­pus size and the dis­tance from his home­town of Perry. He said it would allow him to get away from his home­town and start a new life.

One of life’s many curve­balls was thrown at Pineda when he found out he was going to become a father in May 2010.

“Having a child in col­lege is…well, hard,” said Pineda. “Not only are you jug­gling the dif­fi­cul­ties that already come from being a col­lege stu­dent, but you are now respon­si­ble for another life. And that is mostly why I work so many jobs, to make sure Little Foot [daugh­ter Alivia] has what she needs.”

The var­i­ous jobs Pineda has pur­sued while at Ferris have included being a res­i­dence assis­tant at Helen Ferris for two years, work­ing as a stu­dent ath­letic trainer, work­ing as an office assis­tant at the Osceola Friend of the Court, being a waiter at Bob Evans, and work­ing as a Ferris Orientation Leader. He is cur­rently work­ing the lat­ter four jobs listed while tak­ing 16 cred­its and rais­ing Alivia.

“Although it is dif­fi­cult, I do enjoy every sec­ond of being a par­ent, and even though times are hard, I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” said Pineda. “Being a par­ent has forced me to become even more of a time man­ager; I have learned to bud­get money and of course I have become more respon­si­ble. It has helped me to ‘grow-up,’ and I am very ready to get out in the real world and begin a new life with a promis­ing career.”

Pineda is thank­ful for fam­ily and close friends who have sup­ported him and helped him pur­sue his dreams. He is espe­cially thank­ful to his sis­ter Nina who has stood by his side in every­thing he does in life.

Having a daugh­ter also comes with hav­ing to make sac­ri­fices. Pineda said some of the biggest ones are sleep and giv­ing some things up in his social life.

“I had to step back from my fra­ter­nity, and this sum­mer I was work­ing a lot verses being out enjoy­ing the vaca­tion,” said Pineda. “Now after list­ing these things, some may think that one would be annoyed to have to sac­ri­fice so much, yet I am happy to give up all of these things just to know that Little Foot has all that she needs and is a happy baby.”

Within the past year, Pineda has made time to be a mem­ber of stu­dent gov­ern­ment, be the BIG Event vol­un­teer coor­di­na­tor, be the Holiday Food Drive coor­di­na­tor, be a mem­ber of the FSU choir, and be a mem­ber of the Ferris State Pride Committee, whose mis­sion is to “…encour­age all employ­ees and stu­dents to pro­mote and par­tic­i­pate in spirit of coop­er­a­tion, respon­si­ble cit­i­zen­ship and life­long pride in our uni­ver­sity.” The next Pride Day will take place on Oct. 5. During this time, mem­bers of the Pride Committee will be on cam­pus reward­ing stu­dents who dis­play school pride.

“It is impor­tant for stu­dents to have Ferris pride because, although some don’t know this now, this is your home. Take some pride in it,” said Pineda. “I per­son­ally have a lot of pride for Ferris because it has shaped me to be who I am today. I am going on my fifth year here and couldn’t be hap­pier to be at Ferris.”

One of the many things that Pineda loves about Ferris is also one of its core val­ues: oppor­tu­nity. He believes Ferris gives stu­dents the oppor­tu­nity to do many things that other uni­ver­si­ties don’t offer in quite the same way, such as hav­ing a lead­er­ship role or intern­ship, cre­at­ing your own reg­is­tered stu­dent orga­ni­za­tion, vol­un­teer­ing at var­i­ous events, and get­ting to know the community.

“Ferris gives you an oppor­tu­nity to make a name for your­self before you are out in the world look­ing for a job,” said Pineda. “It gives stu­dents who wouldn’t nor­mally be at a uni­ver­sity a chance to have a ‘col­lege expe­ri­ence.’ I could go on and on about how pas­sion­ate I am about Ferris; that’s just one of the biggest things that excites me about Ferris.”

Through Ferris’ oppor­tu­ni­ties and the drive to suc­ceed, Pineda along with many other stu­dents jug­gling intense col­lege lives have bright futures ahead of them.