Both clocked up to 12 hours a day (and sometimes more) on the university’s main campus. These two super commuters—Maina, from Hanford, and Manzo, from Visalia—mainly relied on family members for transportation. That meant working around someone else’s schedule along with waking up early and getting home late on most days.
Both students filled those bonus hours with friends, Chapel, games, studying, jobs and even a nap or two. They took advantage of resources like the Commuter House and Commuter Lounge—which offer TV, video consoles, kitchen basics and comfy seating—and fit in tutoring sessions and visits to professors during office hours.
But it wasn’t always easy to occupy the extra time. “It was hard at first, but I’ve just learned to appreciate the campus more,” says Manzo, who is a leader in the university’s Women’s Ministry. “There are things for me to do.”
“Sometimes it is overwhelming,” says Maina, who works two campus jobs in the mailroom and cafeteria. “But I am determined to become a nurse.”
Though Maina and Manzo share the characteristics of commute and class standing, they are a world apart in other ways. Maina was born and raised in Kenya, coming to the U.S. and FPU to pursue her dream. Manzo is a graduate of Woodlake High School in Tulare County and hopes to become a teacher.
They met at last year’s freshman retreat but—despite those long hours on campus—crossed paths infrequently after that.
Maina was born in Nakuru and moved as a child to Nairobi, Kenya’s largest and capital city. She went through the country’s school system and was starting college when the COVID pandemic hit.
She decided to take a break and, as COVID wound down, began volunteering with the Kenyan Red Cross in information technology. Maina also agreed to be on call to assist with tragedies and disasters ranging from traffic accidents to flooding.
“I got interested in nursing when I was with the Red Cross,” she says. Maina was inspired to look at colleges in the United States because a cousin moved here to study in New York.
“But I wanted to go to California,” she adds. Part of the attraction was her aunt, a nurse, who lives in Hanford.
“I didn’t know that much about the U.S. and my aunt could guide me,” Maina says. Attending a Christian university also was important.
In the U.S. and the Central Valley, Maina had adjustments to make: the weather (more extreme heat and cold than Kenya) and food (Americans love cheese), for example. But her grueling schedule was perhaps the greatest challenge.
She commuted on most days with her aunt, who works in Chowchilla. Maina woke up around 4:00 a.m., prepared for class and reached campus around 5:10 or 5:20 a.m.
She worked on assignments, or sometimes napped, before her 7:55 a.m. class on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Her commute was similar on Tuesdays; on Thursdays she usually took the train and a city bus to accommodate a later class schedule.
In addition to classes, Maina worked about 20 hours a week in the campus mail room and cafeteria (including weekends) to help pay tuition. Leaving campus, when schedules permitted, Maina’s aunt picked her up on the way home from Chowchilla.
When schedules didn’t mesh, Maina took a bus to the Amtrak station in downtown Ď㽶ĘÓƵąŮÍř and then rode the train to Hanford. Some days, her aunt or uncle would pick her up in Hanford after 10:00 p.m.
Sleep deprivation, and little time for a social life, were real consequences of the long days. Maintaining that kind of schedule “takes passion for what you are doing because giving up is easy,” Maina says. “It takes commitment.”
Like Maina, Manzo often spent more than 12 hours on campus for her three-day, in-person class schedule. Her mother, who starts work at 7:00 a.m. in Visalia, drove her to Ď㽶ĘÓƵąŮÍř Pacific and then returned to campus after work—usually around 8:00 p.m.
It was an adjustment, Manzo says. “I hated it a lot at first, when I first started coming because I didn’t know what was open. I was barely learning the campus.”
Fortunately, it didn’t take long to find ways to spend her free time. “I have a lot of friends who are also here,” Manzo says, adding that her dedication to the Women’s Ministry absorbs many hours.
Beyond that, she visited Hiebert Library, completed homework, played cards with friends or read. “The university has a lot of places where you can go,” Manzo says. “I like going into the library—it’s really peaceful in there.”
She also called her younger sister to check on her and the family’s two dogs. “I always find something to fill my time,” Manzo says. “I’m not very good at just sitting there still—I kind of always have to be doing something.”
Manzo, who volunteers in the children’s ministry at her church, briefly considered a business major before deciding on education, but “that wasn’t entirely what I wanted. I always wanted to have a job that serves people in some sort of way.”
Manzo knows children who progress through school without reading at the benchmark grade level. “If I can help kids learn to read and gain that love of reading, I think that serves them,” she says.
Initially, Manzo considered a Christian university in Virginia—but then she learned more about Ď㽶ĘÓƵąŮÍř Pacific. “I feel like I’m in the right place,” she says. “I’m a firm believer that God put me here because I prayed about it a lot. I was uncertain of where I wanted to go, where I should go, and I feel like the answer was to come here.”
Both Manzo and Maina praised the patience and dedication of university professors as they look to their sophomore years. This fall, however, they may spend fewer hours on campus because both hope to earn driver’s licenses over the summer.
“Hopefully by August I will be driving to school,” Maina says.
Email storyteam@fresno.edu.
