A certain word keeps coming to Chanda Torres ’98 ’00MA ’08EdD when she begins to describe where she’s been and where she is now: β€œIronically.” Her work in student and academic affairs at ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ completes a series of so many ironies, or β€œfull-circle moments,” that it begins to sound like maybe they aren’t happenstance but instead part of an incredibly perfect plan.

β€œWhat I’m doing today is another full-circle moment,” she says about her current role as the assistant vice president of the Kenneth G. Dixon Career Development Center. β€œIt fits my passion for preparing students for life. Many of them remind me of myself, with similar challenges that I faced.”

Given only a narrow perspective of today, you’d never suspect Torres faced such challenges. You’d only see that Torres has three degrees from ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄, including a doctoral degree in education in curriculum and instruction. She helped imagine the office of Student Success and Well-Being for ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ Downtown. She’s been asked to share her expertise on student development at state and national conferences, earned awards for her exemplary practices, and can so easily articulate how ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ advanced the idea of β€œstudent success” from theory to proof that it’s easy to miss how this full circle began for her.

Torres has never forgotten.

β€œMy motivation comes from my own story,” says Torres, who also earned a bachelor’s in foreign language education and master’s in educational leadership from ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄.

β€œAs big as ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ is, it became my home. This is where I found mentors and people who helped me grow into what I am today. It’s why I’m here, 20-some years later, to make sure students have the support they need to graduate on time and discover their own passion to be successful.”

Before she knew what success as a student or as a leader meant, Torres had to overcome doubts. She struggled with a learning disability, which affected her academically and socially. The label on Chanda Torres the teenager said β€œat-risk student” and β€œlow-income family.” She gravitated into theater to find a sense of belonging. To pull her credentials up to speed after high school, she muscled through classes at Brevard Community College. A few years later, driven partly by a desire to prove doubters wrong, she came to ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ to find her own way β€” a transfer student dropped off in a very new, very big place.

β€œIt was the best thing my parents could have done,” Torres says. β€œAs big as ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ is, it became my home. This is where I found mentors and people who helped me grow into what I am today. It’s why I’m here, 20-some years later, to make sure students have the support they need to graduate on time and discover their own passion to be successful.”

All of this tells us why the College of Community Innovation and Education honored Torres in 2023 as a Distinguished Alumni. She is also a big reason ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ has achieved a 90% freshman retention rate and increased our four-year graduation rate to 68.1%, which is up 18.1 percentage points in five years.

β€œTo have achieved success as a student despite my history,” she says, β€œand then to be honored for the work I’m doing for other students, and now to play a role in ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄β€™s [qualification for] designation as a preeminent university, it all represents another full circle.”

Driven by Personal Experience to Serve Students

At the Dixon Career Development Center, Torres oversees services and programs that support students through every stage of their journey β€” from discovering career and advanced-degree options and gaining meaningful experience to preparing for and launching their next step. Through career education, employer connections, internships and other experiential learning opportunities, Dixon Career Development Center helps students build a future with confidence and purpose.

Torres knows the greatest impact begins with one student and one conversation at a time.

β€œIt’s crucial to understand where they’ve been and where they want to go,” she says. β€œThere are people around us in everyday life who are intelligent and talented but haven’t heard someone tell them. Ironically, that’s exactly what turned everything around for me.”

β€œI knew deep down, despite my learning difficulties, that I was capable. The question was always, β€˜Does anyone else believe it?’ ”

Torres’ parents never had a β€œsomeone.” Her mom had dropped out of high school. Her dad joined the military to escape poverty. They married young. Torres would be the second of their four children.

β€œI knew deep down, despite my learning difficulties, that I was capable. The question was always, β€˜Does anyone else believe it?’ ” she says.

To this day, she points back to a high-school language arts teacher, Mr. Couch, who encouraged Torres to participate in theater and engage in public speaking. His confidence in her unlocked skills and pathways she didn’t know existed. Because of him, she pursued a degree in education, so she could also be a teacher. What happened during her master’s work at ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ turned her into a lifelong believer in learning opportunities outside the classroom.

β€œIronically,” she says again, β€œwhile mentoring ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ students in the program now known as SOAR [Seizing Opportunities for Achievement and Retention], I helped some of them with public speaking. That’s what Mr. Couch told me was my strength before I knew it myself. I began to realize my calling into leadership, where I could scale my impact with students.”

After a 10-year run in student support at Valencia College, Torres was courted to return to ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ as the assistant vice president of student success. She would be among the first to create real structure for the concept of student success at her alma mater: advising, coaching, retention, and career and transfer services. To inspire her to map out the future, she could look at her own past.

Turns out, another inspiration was coming.

A Reinvigorated Purpose

Torres’ perspective changed dramatically in 2018. Early that year, she took a leave from ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ to give birth to her daughter. The questions she’d always heard from parents of students took root in her own mind. What will my little girl’s life be like? Will she find her own passion? What can I do to make sure she thrives?

Torres set up a scholarship fund. She paid attention to her daughter’s interests in animals and STEM, supporting her passion for animal rescues, attending SeaWorld camp and learning code. She would be a mother, mentor and encourager.

β€œI’ve learned from my own experiences how important it is to be engaged in her journey, so when the time comes, she can graduate on time, get the job she wants and be retained because of her valuable skills. Those are the same types of measures of success we have for each ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ student.”

β€œMy purpose could not be more clear: to make sure every student, regardless of high school or background, whether they’re a freshman or transfer, is seen, supported, and feels capable.”

After her maternity leave, Torres went to ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ Downtown to mesh student affairs with the community and business sector. Then, in July 2025, she returned to the main campus that she says she remembers as home to lead the Dixon Career Development Center.

β€œIt’s exciting to see students connecting with resources β€” like academic success coaches β€” and discovering a clear direction. They have research opportunities, clubs, community work, networking and people to listen.”

Maybe it isn’t so ironic that she’s here, where her own path to success started.

β€œMy purpose could not be more clear: to make sure every student, regardless of high school or background, whether they’re a freshman or transfer, is seen, supported, and feels capable,” she says. β€œThat’s what I needed to complete my journey. And now it’s my way of giving back to the university that has given me so much.”