MC serves as start to bright future for brother and sisterAugust 11, 2022

Mariana and Lorenzo Erazo come from an international family, and the two speak three languages fluently—English, Spanish and Portuguese.  All three languages are spoken equally in their home.  Mariana, age 21, excelled at Midland College during the two years that she attended while taking academic transfer courses, and Lorenzo, age 13, is following the family tradition of excellence as a 9th grader at Early College High School at Midland College (ECHS@MC).

Their parents Soeli and Antonio Erazo met when Soeli, who is a native of Brazil, moved to Colombia and began working for Occidental Petroleum (Oxy).  Antonio, a native Colombian, was also employed by Oxy.  In 2005, Soeli and Antonio moved to Midland from Florida with 4-year-old Mariana. Lorenzo was born in Midland in 2008, but in 2012, the family moved to Brazil and lived there until 2015 when they moved back to Midland.  Soeli is now the director of 2-1-1 Texas Permian Basin, and Antonio is a maintenance technician at Midland College.  This week, Mariana will begin pursuing a Master’s of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing and working as a graduate assistant at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.  Lorenzo is in the ninth grade at Early College High School at Midland College (ECHS@MC).

“Even though I was born in Midland, I actually started kindergarten in Brazil,” Lorenzo said.  “Of course, in school, we only spoke Portuguese, but at home, no matter where we lived, we have always easily switched our conversations from Portuguese to English to Spanish.  I can’t ever recall not speaking all three languages in our home.  Even on family movie nights, we will go from one movie to the next, and each one may be in a different language.”

When the family moved back to Midland in 2015, Lorenzo was in the 2nd grade and attended grades 2-8 at St. Ann’s Catholic School.  Last school year, he applied and was accepted into ECHS@MC, an accelerated high school that allows students to complete an associate degree while still in high school.  Tuition for college courses is free, thanks to funding from community donors that is supplanted by Midland College.  Lorenzo’s ultimate goal is to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and become a robotics engineer.  He is well on his way to achieving this goal, having completed a four-week STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) camp at University of Texas Permian Basin (UTPB) this past summer. 

“Since Mariana attended Midland College and my father works there, I already knew about a lot of the unique programs available to Midland College students,” Lorenzo explained.  “ECHS@MC appealed to me because it is a great opportunity to get my first two years of college at no cost.”

“I think Lorenzo will do well in this program,” Mariana said.  “He is very intelligent, and I hope he enjoys the Midland College classes and professors as much as I did.”

When Mariana began taking Midland College classes in 2018 after graduating from Lee High School (now Legacy High School), her major was Business; however, she quickly changed to English when she rediscovered her passion for writing.

“The professors at MC really encouraged me in my writing,” Mariana recalled.  “I think that I always wanted to be a writer, but the support I received at Midland College cemented it for me.  Midland College English Professors Stacy and Brendan Egan had a tremendous impact on my decision to pursue English as a career. I remember that they both encouraged discussion in their classes, and during the discussion there were no wrong answers. They emphasized exploration and creativity in discovering my own writing style. I also met professors at UTPB who had Master of Fine Arts degrees, making me realize how many possibilities are out there.

“However, it wasn’t just English courses that I enjoyed at MC. I also loved science courses with Tomás Hernandez and Joan Gawloski, and the hands-on lab component with Missy Schenkman.”

During her time at Midland College, Mariana won second and third place in Midland College’s creative writing contest in both the poetry and short story categories, and second place in the National Sigma Kappa Delta Poetry Contest.  She was highly active in Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, Sigma Kappa Delta Honor Society and Students in Philanthropy.  She also worked in the MC mailroom during her first year in college and then worked as a tutor in the MC Language Hub during her second year.  

After graduating from Midland College in 2020, Mariana transferred to UTPB, and this past May she graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Arts degree having majored in English and minored in History. She worked there as a research assistant, describing her experience as rewarding. She also put her writing and language abilities to work during her employment at Workforce Solutions of the Permian Basin in Odessa where she reviewed and edited program outreach materials and translated them into Spanish.  The job began as a part-time assignment, but quickly morphed into full-time.  Now, as a graduate assistant in the English department at New Mexico State University (NMSU), she teaches Composition I and tutors in the university’s writing center. 

“I really enjoy editing and proofreading, and I think that is the direction my career will go,” she said.  “However, I also want to keep writing my own compositions.  My poems and short stories have been published in six different places, and I write a blog entitled ‘What I See.’  It mainly consists of my original works and book reviews, but it has a little bit of everything. I write in English, Spanish and Portuguese.”

Besides writing in her spare time, Mariana enjoys reading and listening to a variety of music including pop and a variety of Latin genres, such as merengue and vallenato. She is also a board member of the Club Internacional de Literatura en Español. 

Lorenzo’s hobbies, on the other hand, center more on science and math. In addition, he is on the swim team at COM, Boy Scouts and plays the piano.  Being an industrious young man, he also does yard work to earn money, which he is saving for his MIT education.

The family has a cat named Agatha and a Rat Terrier/Chihuahua mix named Athena.  They enjoy taking road trips together.  Some of their favorite road trips have been to San Diego, CA; Carlsbad, NM; and in Texas to Amarillo, Austin, Houston and San Angelo.