Virginia Finster will forever be connected to Texas Tech through its willingness to say yes to her over and over.

Recently, Virginia Finster was chatting with her mother when she felt compelled to ask about her childhood, and specifically what Finster wanted to be when she grew up. Her mother’s response was immediate.

“Girl, you wanted to be everything,” she said.

While Finster may not have accomplished absolutely everything her younger self desired, the life she’s built for herself at 35 is assuredly something to marvel at.

A mother of two children and marketing content creator at San Antonio College (SAC), Finster has spent much of her adult years overcoming the odds and setting an admirable example for not only her family, but the students on SAC’s campus. That site played a key role in Finster’s resurgence, which culminated in Lubbock in August as she crossed the stage in Texas Tech University’s United Supermarkets Arena to receive her master’s degree. 

In her youth, her family orbited around the Texas Hill Country between Bandera and Center Point. Finster’s father, John, who worked seven days a week through holidays and birthdays to provide for his family, instilled in Finster a sense of determination and altruism. John’s commitment to the Center Point community at large earned him a favorable reputation, leading to memories for Finster purely by association. 

One such incident occurred when she was a teenager, when a neighbor in a local gas station recognized Finster as John’s daughter. 

“She reached her hand out, and she looked at me with tears in her eyes, and she goes, ‘I just want to let you know that with my daughter in high school, I didn't have money for her prom dress, and your dad, while buying his soda, gave me money for my daughter, for her to have a prom dress. That's the kindest thing anybody's ever done for me,’” Finster recalled.

Though not wealthy in a materialistic sense, John’s accumulation of social capital through his actions is something Finster will never forget and a model she’s sought all her life to emulate. 

“I want to serve my community to where it impacts people, to where either their suffering is eased, or they're inspired, or they're given hope, because this is a hard world to live in,” she said. “We need a little bit of sunshine every now and then, so if I can be a little bit of sunshine behind a rain cloud, that would be great.”

Unfortunately, life threw several storms her direction. A teenage Finster who dreamed of building schools for the Peace Corps was forced to drop out of high school in her freshman year, seeking to provide for her younger sister amidst a family of divorced parents and a mother struggling with various mental health issues.

She worked full time and earned her GED utilizing resources from a rural Hill Country library. She had her son, Leif, at age 20 from a relationship mired in domestic violence. Finster enrolled in college but a lack of institutional support for Leif, who is autistic, limited her from continuing. 

That left the small family living out of Finster’s car, with Finster going back and forth to drop off her son to be cared for by family members while she searched for jobs. 

In 2012, Finster had her second child, a daughter she named Clover. Still without a definitive, positive outlook for her and her children, she’d hit her lowest point. 

“I felt like I had drifted so far from the person I thought I would have been as a kid,” she said through tears. “My heart had always been in the right place, but you have to make the right decisions, or it doesn’t mean anything.”

Taking a step back to evaluate what had led her on this path and determine that some version of her dreams was still attainable, Finster motivated herself to start on what she knew would be a long road back to success.

Through the Goodwill Academy at Goodwill San Antonio, she earned a pharmacy technician certification and found a job. Finster felt confident in her marketable skills, daily uniform and consistent wages for a time, but after three years, those thoughts turned to disillusionment with the industry and her career trajectory. 

There must be more to achieve, she thought.

A moment of fortune spotlighted Finster’s next move. Restitution for an incident years earlier involving a police vehicle that totaled her car finally rolled in. Instead of buying a new car, Finster seized the timely opportunity to put this sudden influx of funds toward her education.

She enrolled in SAC’s journalism and photography program, combining her desires to learn how to ask specific questions and continue a long-held passion for photography. She worked as the visual editor for the school’s student newspaper before graduating with an associate degree in 2018, at the age of 28. 

At the time, Finster thought that accomplishment marked the end of or at least a hiatus in her academic career.

But soon after, she found herself back on campus to write about the Student Activity Center, when she ran into Lance Pickle of Texas Tech Online.

Pickle, now a senior online student advocate, told Finster about the Red Raider Guarantee, which seeks to increase access to higher education to those with financial need.

Eight months later, Finster was a proud Red Raider.

“This university says yes to people like me,” she said, reflecting on the transfer opportunities available to her at the time. “This college has created programming and pathways to where a 30-year-old woman in San Antonio can have this opportunity through online programs and financial support.”

Finster started at Texas Tech in spring 2020, chipping away at a bachelor’s degree while balancing the unexpected burden of essentially homeschooling her children during the COVID-19 pandemic. As if that weren’t enough, she was also on Goodwill San Antonio’s Board of Directors, bringing the perspective of a former client to advocate for current ones since 2018.

Was she fazed by these responsibilities? Of course not.

Instead, she was emboldened, with the omnipresent thoughts of people who were once in her shoes and the lessons she was actively learning while majoring in political science and minoring in history. 

B. Kathleen Gallagher, an assistant professor of public administration, was a major contributor to those philosophies Finster took beyond Texas Tech.

In Gallagher’s undergraduate course, “Defense Against the Dark Arts: An Introduction to the Policy Process,” Finster was tasked with reading a book from the “Harry Potter” series and making connections between the book’s language and the realities of public policy. 

Another assignment prompted Finster to choose something to advocate for policy-wise. She landed on the importance of public libraries and their value to communities as hubs of education and socialization.

Gallagher taught students a framework for advocacy that pointed them in the direction of organizations and how to find common ground on the road to collaboration. 

The “Harry Potter” project displayed Gallagher’s novel approach and ability to relate pop culture to how policy impacts people; the rest of her persona as a thoughtful activist, researcher and mentor marks Gallagher’s capacity to connect despite activities pulling her in all directions.

“You can network your whole life, and you'll have just a handful of people that take the time and dedication to really connect folks so that they can be exposed to opportunities they would not have otherwise,” Finster said. “That is really special to me.”

In fact, Gallagher was the one to encourage Finster to apply for the Department of Political Science’s Master of Public Administration. Her confidence in Finster’s ability and potential impact, even while Finster herself and others debated whether she should continue in school, was instrumental.

When Finster told her children in 2022 she was going to pursue a master’s degree, her son Leif remarked that she had been in school going on a decade.

She responded to him that dreams aren’t built in a month or even 10 years, and that she was seeking to build a legacy of dedication and resiliency to show her children the right mentality. 

Finster acknowledges there were many nights where she cried herself to sleep, unsure of whether she would make it across the finish line, dreading a lurking circumstance that could crumble everything she’d worked for. She feared her kids would grow up in an environment like hers, one in which countless people lack economic opportunity and become stuck with no path to prosperity. 

She could have become resigned to living out of the trunk of her car, but rather, she pushed forward. 

Finster graduated from Texas Tech with her master’s in August 2025. Her high school-aged son is now enrolled at an engineering magnet program, and her daughter is at a medical magnet program in middle school; both witnesses to the power of education.

“If I would have stopped five years ago, it just would have been words,” Finster said. “But they've seen that their mom refuses to give up, and then they have the juxtaposition of seeing what others have done with time and that Mom still hangs on, holds on and how she dedicates herself.”

In her roles with SAC and Goodwill, she’s sought to aid others through experiences she had as a Red Raider. 

Finster encouraged her board of directors to make the pharmacy technician career program available online, and she spread awareness at SAC about beating the summer heat as part of a project for her master’s. Several other initiatives are in the works as well, all stemming from what Finster saw she could do while studying public administration.

She is grateful for her journey and wouldn’t trade it for the world. While she’s impacted many through various means, her story is a full-circle fulfillment of holding true to her values. 

“If we hang on long enough, and if we surround ourselves with the people and the institutions that say ‘yes’ to us, we can make it,” she said. “We owe it to ourselves, we owe it to the people that came before us and we owe it to those who come next.”

Finster calls herself a living testament of 'From Here, It’s Possible™.' After enduring struggles and feeling aimless, she prayed for a chance to attend an accessible institution.

Texas Tech was the answer, rising above other schools that tout accessibility by providing asynchronous programming that carried the same level of rigor, financial assistance and mentorship. In return, she’s taken the Texas Tech brand to San Antonio.

Red Raider memorabilia adorns Finster’s household. When she’s out and about, she loves taking the time to share about what the school means to her, and especially its opportunities for students eligible for FAFSA. 

“For me, when they say, ‘From Here, It’s Possible™,’ it rings true,” Finster said. “I tell anyone and everyone I can about Texas Tech.”