Alumni

Distinguished Graduate, Alfredo Dominguez, Returned to Valencia College for Bachelor’s Degree and to Rekindle His Spark

by Linda Shrieves

Alfredo Dominguez believes you are never too old to rewrite your story.

Which is precisely what Dominguez has done – coming back to Valencia College after dropping out in 2013 to support his young family. In 2016, he returned to Valencia to complete his Associate in Arts degree. He started a new career and returned again in 2022, this time determined to earn a bachelor’s degree in business.

In May, Dominguez will walk across the stage to receive his bachelor’s degree – but the 32-year-old father of two will also have a good seat: He’ll be on stage as Valencia College’s Mary S. Collier Distinguished Graduate for 2025.

Dominguez’s life journey included switchbacks and detours, but he kept coming back to Valencia College because he felt a sense of community on campus.  “There was something about Valencia that stuck with me. The way they made you feel part of the family,” he says.

Starting at Valencia College immediately after graduating from Osceola County School for the Arts in 2011, he earned a scholarship from Bridges to Success. He loved his classes, but a year later, when he and his girlfriend got married, he took on a second job – working at Osceola County schools as a paraprofessional and at Zaxby’s, a fast-food chicken restaurant.

Then when his wife, Tabitha, became pregnant with their first son, Dominguez added yet another part-time job, working as a waiter at Celebration’s Market Street Café.

“I was just trying to make ends meet,” he says. “I struggled with the fact that I didn’t finish. I tried to go back,” but he says it was difficult to balance his responsibilities at home and those at school. “I often struggled with: ‘Do I turn in an assignment, or do I pick up an extra shift so I can make ends meet?’ “

With so much on his plate, he paused his college plans, but the goal remained. “To go back and finish was my dream,” he says.

 

Alfredo Dominguez was determined to earn his degree – and came back to Valencia College because the faculty and staff made him feel like a member of the family.

Getting the fever back

Today, Dominguez serves as executive pastor at the Tabernacle of Poinciana Church.  Two years ago, he helped the church launch a K-12 school in the community of Poinciana.

As the leader of a Christian school, he was determined to return to college, to serve as both a role model for his two young sons, 10-year-old Adrian and 7-year-old Lucas, but also for the students at the school.

Although he first tried earning his bachelor’s degree from a national online university, the experience wasn’t what he’d hoped for, and he eventually dropped out. “It wasn’t Valencia,” he recalls. So when he learned that Valencia College now offers a bachelor’s of applied science in business and organizational leadership, he signed up.  “Everywhere I went at Valencia, they made you feel like you were part of the family. It didn’t matter how old you were,” he says. “Valencia had a piece of me. I owed it to them to finish there.”

He knew that juggling college classes with his full-time job and family responsibilities wouldn’t be easy. He warned his sons that he wouldn’t be able to enjoy as many movie nights with them, and that sometimes he’d be unavailable.   “My boys are young, so I took them to the Poinciana Campus and we parked in the parking lot, and I told them, ‘This is where Papi is going to school. This is going to be Papi’s school for the next two years.’  I explained to them that I was doing to this to prove to myself that dreams do come true, it doesn’t matter what age we are.”

Yet, at the age of 30, he knew returning to college would be daunting.

“I started off just taking one class in person, just because I wanted to get my feet wet,” he recalls. When he walked into the classroom at Poinciana Campus for his macroeconomics class, he was reminded of the gulf between him and many of the other students.

“There were a lot of dual-enrollment students and the professor was very hands-on and he wanted us to work in small groups to get to know each other. He started by asking us to share a little about ourselves with the other group members,” Dominguez says. “I can’t lie, it was pretty intimidating.”

He dove in anyway – and succeeded.
“I got the fever back, the motivation after passing that course, and the encouragement that I felt, I knew that it was for me,” he says. “I knew this was my time.”

Along the way, he has also inspired others to go back to school. After seeing Dominguez return to college, his mom earned her GED. And he encouraged two of his friends, also adults, to enroll – even accompanying one of his friends to his first class and sitting beside him on that first day, so that he could ease his friend’s fears.

Using his knowledge from the Valencia College business classes, he helped his father, who’d worked in the pest-control industry for years, launch his own pest-control business. The classes also taught him valuable skills that he brings to his job.

“The courses in the business program prepared me to make executive decisions, to have a good sense of the business world. Although many people don’t want to see a church organization as a business, it really is a business,” he says. “They also taught us how to prepare and develop a team… and that’s what we do at church, develop leaders.”

Now armed with his bachelor’s degree, Dominguez is planning his next step. “I’m hoping to get my master’s degree – either in Christian education or in organizational leadership,” he says. “Of course, I do want to take a breather, but I don’t want to take too much time. I want to push myself to attain that degree.”

It’s just another step in his journey – a journey that, as he reminds his congregation, is one that we chart for ourselves.

“You are not your mom, you are not your dad. You do not have to repeat a generational cycle,” he says. And if people ask him where they should start, he has two words for them: Valencia College.