Cover Story - Winter 2025 Issue
Where Dreams Take Shape
Two Donnelly alumni share how education, faith, and community transformed their lives.
At SHINE 2025, Carmelita Bahamonde-Alvarado ’13 and Aaron Smallwood ’24 moved the audience with personal accounts of the transformative power of higher education and reflections on how Donnelly shaped their journeys, helping them overcome obstacles and realize their dreams.
From Curiosity to Calling: Carmelita Bahamonde-Alvarado ’13
Carmelita, whose family emigrated from Ecuador, first learned about Donnelly College as a high school student seeking a welcoming and faith-centered environment. She and her mother visited campus after learning about Donnelly through the Migrant Farmworkers’ Assistance Fund. Both were immediately drawn to the sense of belonging they felt.
“Finding this affordable Catholic college was a blessing,” Carmelita said. “I greatly missed the faith-based education I had in Ecuador.”
Carmelita’s decision to attend Donnelly proved life-changing. In her first semester, she told her English professor, Dr. Melissa Lenos, that she dreamed of becoming a museum curator, an idea sparked by the film “National Treasure.” “Not the part about stealing the Declaration of Independence,” she laughed, “but the part where Diane Kruger’s character worked in a major museum.”
Dr. Lenos connected Carmelita with a colleague at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, which led to opportunities for volunteer work, internships and speaking engagements about Latino art. Although Carmelita ultimately chose to pursue a master’s degree in library science instead of museum studies, she credits her Donnelly community, especially Dr. Lenos, librarian Jane Bala de Tovar and the late Father John Melnick, with helping her discern her path. Today, Carmelita serves as the Spanish Services Outreach Librarian at Mid-Continent Public Library and remains active with local arts and community boards.
“Donnelly gave me more than academic and professional opportunities... it gave me community and spiritual guidance,” she said. “Graduating without any college debt is a blessing I do not take for granted. I tell everyone to start at Donnelly.”
“Finding this
affordable Catholic college
was a blessing.”
From the Valley to the Summit: Aaron Smallwood ’24
Aaron Smallwood’s journey to a college degree began within the walls of the Lansing Correctional Facility, where Donnelly offers college courses to incarcerated students through its College in Prison Program. “I faced significant learning challenges because of early trauma,” Aaron said. “I did not learn my ABCs until third grade. No one expected me to read beyond an eighth-grade level.”
His high-school English teacher introduced him to poetry and helped him find his voice. Years later, Donnelly’s program became the place where he began to rebuild his confidence and imagine a different future. Aaron often speaks about the meaningful guidance he received from Donnelly faculty who encouraged him to keep writing, reflect on his experiences and trust that his story had purpose. Their support helped him grow as a student and as a person. After 28 years in prison, Aaron was released in 2024. He now works at Zephyr Products and Brothers in Blue as a reentry coordinator, teaching trauma healing and creative writing classes to help others “tell their story.” His favorite verse, Acts 20:24, continues to guide him: “My life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus, the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.”
During his SHINE address, Aaron shared his original poem “Climb with Courage,” reminding guests that determination and faith can help anyone scale even the steepest mountain. Enjoy this excerpt:
Climb when the air is thin.
Climb when the rocks cut your hands.
Climb when the world says it cannot be done.
Because the summit, the summit of transformation, of freedom, of zero, is waiting.
The summit is not just a point on a map.
It is a place of becoming. A place where chains are broken, where cycles are ended, where stories are rewritten. It is the promise that no matter how deep the valley, there is always a higher place to climb.
Climb when the rocks cut your hands.
Climb when the world says it cannot be done.
Because the summit, the summit of transformation, of freedom, of zero, is waiting.
The summit is not just a point on a map.
It is a place of becoming. A place where chains are broken, where cycles are ended, where stories are rewritten. It is the promise that no matter how deep the valley, there is always a higher place to climb.
“I found my
voice through
poetry and the people who believed in me.”
Previous Cover Stories
This site provides information using PDF, visit this link to download the Adobe Acrobat Reader DC software.