Tania Torres’ Testimonial: A First-Generation College Student and Successful Business Owner
How has CEA helped make Catholic education attainable and affordable for your family?
“As the daughter of Mexican immigrants growing up in a working-class neighborhood, a Catholic education was an extraordinary opportunity that my family could not take for granted. Organizations like Catholic Education Arizona help ensure that a family’s income doesn’t determine a child’s potential. I’m living proof of what can happen when a young person is given access to that opportunity.”
How did your parents prioritize making a Catholic education possible for you, and what sacrifices or efforts stand out to you today?
“My parents had limited resources, but education and faith were non-negotiable priorities in our home. We lived one block from St. Matthew’s Church and School, which was a beacon for families like ours, and my parents made whatever sacrifices were necessary to give me 12 years of Catholic education—from St. Matthew’s through Xavier College Preparatory.”
What does a Catholic education mean to you and your family?
“For my family, Catholic education was about much more than academics—it was about faith, discipline, service, and believing that God had given each of us gifts we were responsible for using. It gave a young Latina, the daughter of immigrants, permission to see herself as someone capable of leading, serving, and making a difference in her community.”
How would you thank those who have helped make your education possible through their state tax dollars and encourage them to continue to support Catholic Education Arizona?
“I would tell every taxpayer who supports Catholic Education Arizona: you may never meet the child whose education you helped make possible, but your investment can change the trajectory of an entire life and, ultimately, a family and a community. Your tax dollars aren’t simply paying tuition; they’re helping develop Arizona’s next generation of leaders, and I hope you’ll continue opening those doors for children who are ready to walk through them.”
Looking back, what is the greatest impact your Catholic education has had on your life, career, faith, or family?
“I can still remember sitting in my eighth-grade parent-teacher conference at St. Matthew’s, just 13 years old, translating between Sr. Elaine and my Spanish-speaking parents as they discussed my future. There was something incredibly powerful about being a child serving as the bridge between the adults in the room, translating Sr. Elaine’s belief in my potential and her encouragement that my parents send me to Xavier College Preparatory. I didn’t fully understand the significance of that conversation then, but looking back, I realize I was translating the words that would ultimately help change the trajectory of my life.
This year I celebrate 30 years since graduating from Xavier College Prep in 1996. Thirty years later, I can say with great conviction that Xavier helped shape the leader I would become—a first-generation college graduate, a successful business owner, and a passionate community advocate. I recognize that my responsibility is to do for others what Sr. Elaine and Catholic education did for me: see their potential, believe in it, and help create the opportunity for it to flourish.”