New graduate Asianna Benalli has tried her best through her school years to reimagine the misfortunes in her life as motivation to succeed.  

A softball standout, she graduated from Atrisco Heritage Academy High School in Albuquerque with a 3.8 grade-point average and has a full scholarship to Bossier Parish Community College in Bossier City across the Red River from Shreveport, La.

In addition, Benalli, who is Navajo, received a Tribal Seal and the Seal for Distinguished Learning from the Albuquerque Public Schools system.

“I’ve always said – my whole life – your problems are an excuse, so use it as motivation. ... It made me really want to work 10 times harder,” Benalli told the Albuquerque Journal. She told the Journal she wants to study criminal justice.

For years, Benalli’s family –her mother and four younger siblings - have suffered housing insecurity, finally finding some stability in a two-bedroom apartment they all share with her grandmother and uncle. Food stamps help pay for groceries.

Benalli received support from the school district’s McKinney-Vento program, with such items as school fees, clothing, toiletries, a yearbook, and even a bat and glove.

The outreach worker “did impact my life in such a positive way,” Benalli said. “She was so welcoming, and she helped us a lot.” The program serves students experiencing housing insecurity.

Benalli’s mother, Kandise Joe, described the tradeoffs her daughter has made: training rather than dating, foregoing the prom, stifling wishes for her own room, her own closet.

“We told her she’d have to sacrifice a lot to get to where she wants to be, and a lot of things are distractions, and right now we’ve got to aim for your future,” Joe told the news site.

Benalli helps her four younger siblings get ready for school, coaches her sister in softball, and offers the children her best advice.

When her brother asked why the family doesn’t have its own home, Benalli told the Journal she responds with a positive spin: “I like to reassure them that ‘this is a lifestyle you don’t want to live when you grow up, so I want you to use that.” She said her aim is “to just give people hope.”

In the interview with the Journal, Benalli made the point that her mother, at age 18, gave birth to her but now she has plans for college and beyond. “Graduation – everything – it’s a big step, because I’m the first generation to go to college,” she said.