Sitting on top of a ladder, holding a brush dipped in calming yellow paint, Graphic Design and Photography alumna Raquel Eduardo Núñez, ’24, is painting a floor-to-ceiling mural in a student lounge on the first floor of Kepner Hall. The design, consisting primarily of vibrant blue shades, features a collage of drawings of a bear, a robot, mountains, dominos and a video game controller.
The space is called the Innovation Hub, which students can visit between classes, so Eduardo Núñez filled the walls with intricate patterns to help promote students’ creativity. Her favorite part of the mural though, is her signature written at the bottom center of the mural: Raquel Eduardo Núñez 2024.
“It makes me feel like I’ve left my mark,” Eduardo Núñez said. “I’ve come to realize how grateful I was during my time in school for the privilege of pursuing higher education and walking through the halls to my classes. Now, when I walk past the mural, I see my creativity on the walls and feel a deep connection to being part of the University of Northern Colorado (UNC).”
Being selected to paint the mural is the cherry on top of the cake for what Eduardo Núñez has achieved at UNC. She graduated summa cum laude with two majors in three years with a Digital Marketing minor and an Arts Entrepreneurship certificate, was in the Honors Program, won the Dickeson Presidential Prize for Leadership and financed her education thanks to multiple scholarships including the Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Initiative and the Stryker Institute for Leadership Development.
“I’m really proud and grateful for where I am now,” Eduardo Núñez said. “Especially because when I first moved to Colorado, I didn’t know any English. So now having graduated from a university in the United States, is a big accomplishment.”
Eduardo Núñez grew up in Mexico with her family and moved to Yuma, Colorado, when she was just 8 years old. Yuma is a rural town in northeast Colorado with a population of 3,456, according to the 2020 census. Eduardo Núñez said the cultural adjustment didn’t come easy.
“I had to relearn everything, and we didn’t know anybody from around the town, so trying to connect with the community was tough at first,” Eduardo Núñez said.
To adapt, Eduardo Núñez focused on two things — academics and art. The academic drive came from her parents instilling the importance of a college degree in her since she was a child. For them, education meant opportunity.
“Education opened the door for my parents to migrate to the United States, and because of that, they instilled in me the profound importance of learning. Through knowledge, we truly gain a unique kind of power that shapes our lives and opens endless opportunities,” Eduardo Núñez said.
With the goal of furthering her education set, Eduardo Núñez and her family had to figure out how to achieve it. Being a first-generation student in the United States, the family had to research a completely different application process, financial aid and housing options.
Eduardo Núñez did have a leg up in one aspect of the enrollment process. At Yuma High School, where she went to school, students can take concurrent enrollment courses from Northeastern Junior College. So, Eduardo Núñez took college courses instead of taking electives in high school.
“I’ve always been really driven by academics and the arts, so taking these courses helped a lot with my career. It was great to have such a big support system there.” Eduardo Núñez said. “That is how I was able to graduate a year early.”
Then, Eduardo Núñez learned about the resources available to her. Colorado’s ASSET Program, which stands for Advancing Students for a Stronger Economy Tomorrow, is a state law that allows U.S. citizens, permanent resident aliens and students without lawful immigration status to qualify for in-state tuition rates if they meet certain conditions. Because Eduardo Núñez is originally from Mexico, she is considered an international student. However, since she finished high school in Colorado and lived in the state for several years, she was able to qualify for in-state tuition through the ASSET program.
“That was a big portion of the decision on whether it was a reality for me to go to college,” Eduardo Núñez said. “I knew that if I was going to be considered an international student, the odds of finishing and pursuing a degree would be a lot harder. So, I just looked at schools that had the ASSET program and luckily UNC was one of them.”
Once enrolled, Eduardo Núñez met with Rudy Vargas, ’13, the director of the César Chávez Cultural Center and Undocumented Student Services at UNC, who introduced her to the scholarships she would be eligible for. Eduardo Núñez was awarded so many scholarships that she received her degrees free of any tuition costs.
“Coming from a family where we were immigrants not too long ago, I specifically looked into having the cultural resources that would be helpful for me as a primarily Spanish-speaking student,” Eduardo Núñez said. “And UNC met many of those criteria. I knew that with the resources and an amazing fine arts program, it was the right spot for me.”
Now it’s time for Eduardo Núñez to leave her signature outside the classroom. She landed an internship with a faith-based nonprofit called Engineering Ministries International (EMI) in Colorado Springs. She’s working with the communications and design team documenting and creating digital marketing that tells powerful stories of transformation. EMI serves groups across the globe by designing critical structures — schools, hospitals, water systems and more — within communities that need them most. Through her work, she’ll highlight the profound impact these projects have on people’s lives, sharing stories of hope, restoration and the love of Christ by creating designs for communities across the world.
Eduardo Núñez will also pursue freelancing opportunities as a designer working on branding, photography and mural projects.
“I’ve really enjoyed painting since I was young, and I’ve been diving into the digital realm. But I’ve always fallen back into painting and having brushes everywhere and just kind of letting that wild creativeness come out,” Eduardo Núñez said. “I acknowledge that we all have different journeys, and we all experience and see the world in different ways. I’ve really enjoyed representing that in my work.”
Wherever Eduardo Núñez goes in her career, she’ll leave her brushstrokes through it all.
—Sydney Kern
