Sometimes you just need to push yourself. Even though you may be afraid, sometimes you just need to push through that fear and challenge yourself. That’s how Kanatires Barreiro ended up at TC3, and she couldn’t be more grateful.

Barreiro was born in Ithaca, shortly after her parents finished college (her father went to TC3 for a year before graduating from Cornell University; her mother graduated from Syracuse University), and lived in Tompkins County until her family moved to Akwesasne when she was six. Her parents had lived on the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation and wanted Kanatires and her brothers to grow up in the culture of their family. She went to elementary school on the reservation, and, after graduating from a local high school, started working on the reservation. 

“After high school, I spent a few years working in my community, mostly with children,” she said. “I was part of the pilot training program for Holistic Life Foundation Akwesasne, and we were trained in a lot of mindfulness exercises like breath work, leading meditation, personal practice, yoga.” She also worked with the Akwesasne Boys and Girls Club, again working with youth in her community. “I'm very community oriented,” she said. “I think being able to support people and be of service to other people has always been a really strongly held value in my family, and so I found a lot of purpose there.”

After Boys and Girls Club, Barreiro spent another two and a half years working as a teacher’s aide in a Head Start classroom. “Out of those four years it took me to come back to school, I think that was the most impactful for me,” she said. “It taught me so much about myself, because working with kids is really special, and it teaches you a lot. I am really grateful for my time there.” While rewarding, it also was an eye-opening time for Barreiro. “It kind of came to a point where I felt like, after so many years, I was putting so many things before myself, and I felt like I was really neglecting myself. I just felt like there was so much out there for me.”

“I felt like it was time to start living my life, away from my community. I saw the potential to grow as a challenge, and I wanted to see how far I could go.”
 

That’s when she decided to go to college. She says she chose TC3 on a whim, but it proved to be the best decision. 

“I was thinking it's pretty close to Ithaca, I have family in the area, and my dad came here for a year,” she said. “I wanted to start small, especially after so many years off from school and working for a few years.”

She started in Fall 2024. “It's been a lot, but in a very good way. I feel very supported by my family and also the people I've met here,” she said. “My friends, faculty, staff members… it's been so much more than I imagined.”

“I feel really proud of myself. I've been doing the work, but I think TC3 also deserves a lot of credit for shaping the person I've become.”

Kanatires Barreiro, Class of 2026
Creative Writing - Poetry and Prose

You will graduate in 2026. What are your plans for after graduation?
What I want to do is share knowledge, share what I have, and give that to others who can benefit from it.

I am hoping to transfer to either the Newhouse School at Syracuse University or the Park School at Ithaca College, but I know that no matter what I do, I want to uplift and enlighten. I want to educate people and teach people, no matter what that looks like. I would love to do it through writing and storytelling, but I also can see myself being a professor or a school teacher. For me, it's the impact on people and inspiring connection in that way. I would really love to do that with writing. But I think no matter what, ultimately my goal is to educate people, whatever that looks like.

What has your experience been like in classes?
I would say I have had a lot of great professors. It's so much more fun to learn when you can tell that the person is passionate about what they teach and when you like learning from them specifically. I've had that experience with a lot of my professors. 

Virginia Shank, Matt Seyfried, and I think the person I really connected with the most is Janita Moricette. I've taken her foundations of business and her business communications classes, and I really enjoy her as a professor, just in her office hours or whenever we talk after class. She is just so awesome, and through our interaction she's helped instill a lot of confidence in me, and has reassured me. I feel like she recognizes that shine in me, even when I've been unable to see it myself. She's so uplifting and encouraging to all of her students, and she's just really amazing. She is just so encouraging, I really enjoy learning from her. I think she's really great at cultivating like that relationship with your students.

What are some of your best memories of your time TC3 so far? 
When I think about my experience here, I think about the Recovery Space, because that was one of my first experiences. I had heard about it at orientation from Ash (Dickson - Student Support Program Specialist), and I had approached them the first day of classes. I wanted to learn more about the health and wellness program and recovery space. They brought me over, introduced me to Declan (Fullerton - Recovery Program Assistant). And since then, I was always in there, and I made really good friends with the workers and just everybody that comes in. It's really helped me open up in a lot of ways, socially. We're all very passionate about the space, and it's just been such a huge part of my TC3 experience. I think it was the first place that really accepted all of me and all of those parts I had hidden away. They really welcomed me with open arms. I also liked being able to help other people, whether it was supporting health and wellness staff or supporting other TC3 students who have struggled in their lives. 

What did you learn about TC3 after first arriving on campus? 
TC3 seems really invested in the well being of their students. It's been really great to work with Declan and Ash, but also Matt (Kiechle - Director of Wellness services) and Sayre (Paradiso - Health and Wellness Services Office Manager). They really do have students best interests at heart, and they're just really special people. 

What advice would you give yourself?
I would say, push yourself. I think anything worth doing is never going to be easy. And that was my main goal in coming here, to challenge myself, push myself - whether that's academically, socially, physically. I've done all of those things.
I think even though I felt a lot of fear, I also felt very excited, and that's what made me jump into things headfirst. And I think a lot of people, shy away because of that fear.

It's always going to be hard. But I think you owe it to yourself just to do it.