Commencement speaker N. Wynter Muro shares her story
Natalya Wynter Muro spent her college years pounding out essays and studying for exams while on her long rides to numerous hospital visits and in the waiting rooms of her many doctors’ offices.
Born with spina bifida and enlarged kidneys, the criminology, law and society major has struggled with debilitating effects from her condition all her life. But despite bouts with extreme physical pain and related anxiety, Muro emerges triumphant.
On June 18, she will deliver the student address at her commencement ceremony. Her message will center on resiliency, something she knows plenty about.
“Throughout my educational journey, I have been plagued by a multitude of health problems,” Muro says. “All four years of college and really Kindergarten through 12th grade as well were spent in and out of doctors’ offices. I had to type up discussion posts while in the waiting room of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. I remember nights spent crying over all of my different specialists not being able to diagnose me as I dealt with chronic nerve pain, but having to wipe my tears away so that they would not fall onto the keyboard while typing up an essay.”
She learned to lessen her physical pain by staying active and busy. She’s persevered through difficult times and gives thanks for all the opportunities afforded her through higher education.
“I knew that it would be difficult balancing the cards life gave me, along with being a student. But, it can be done,” she says. “It has been done. Despite all the hardships I have faced, I find myself still eager to take on any opportunity given to me. I am proud to be able to call myself a transfer student, a student with a disability, a first-generation Latina scholar, and an ambitious stubborn young woman.”
Stubborn in a good way, that is.
Like when she was a community college student taking 18 units one semester. Her academic counselor advised her to cut back, but Muro refused and finished with all As on her transcript.
“If I want to do something, I want to do it and I refuse to let anybody tell me ‘no,’ ” Muro explains, adding that her late grandfather used to tell her she would be able to do anything in life because she is “so stubborn.”
The 21-year-old Fontana resident credits her mom, an immigrant from Mexico, for instilling in her the importance of education.
“My mom always told me, ‘I don’t care what you study, but go to school so you can do whatever you want in life. Be grateful for the opportunities you have and be something in this world.’ She made me understand that if it’s in your hands, you can’t lose that opportunity that a lot of people don’t have.”
So, Muro, who transferred to UCI from Chaffey Community College in the fall of 2021, works hard and takes advantage of any chance she gets to better herself and her future. And, she wants to see her peers succeed as well so she serves as a transfer peer educator.
Though she’s only spent two years on campus, she served as co-chair of the events committee for UCI Care's Annual Take Back the Night. She was a member of the Pre-law Society and she’s a volunteer mentor at an after-school program in Anaheim. She interned at the law firm of Higbee and Associates, where she worked in the speciality services unit, expunging cases and working in the name of restorative justice. And, she supported three of UCI’s innovative projects — LIFTED (Leveraging Inspiring Futures Through Educational Degrees), the first UC B.A. program for incarcerated students; the Underground Scholars Initiative; and PrisonPandemic, the country’s only archive of stories by incarcerated people during the pandemic. She also joined five other transfer students in April on a trip to Sacramento, where they lobbied State Assemblymembers to pass bills pertaining to disability justice and justice and equality for students who are parents and undocumented students.
After earning her bachelor’s degree, Muro will be applying for law school. Her goal is to help survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence and pursue efforts that aim to better communities.
Muro’s first criminology course at Chaffey taught her about mass incarceration rates and how people of color are disproportionately targeted. It influenced her initial interest in defense work and restorative justice, but then, she took another class that touched on a sexual assault “court case that really upset me and pushed me to pursue criminology and aiding survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence and law school.”
The injustice of the case “really weighed me,” she recalls.
Muro chose to study at UCI because of the stellar reputation of the Department of Criminology, Law and Society. Once she enrolled in classes, she was not disappointed.
“All of my professors established such a good foundation for me to be able to figure out the criminal justice system and make my own opinions about it and they taught me that there are so many different things that you could do,” Muro says. “All of these professors are so progressive in the work that they do. And, they make it seem so possible for us to get out there and be the change in the world that we want to see.”
Her professors are equally impressed by Muro.
“Wynter has been an unparalleled addition to several of my courses, as both a student and learning assistant who invested countless hours to help her peers succeed,” says Brandon Golob, assistant professor of teaching in criminology, law and society. “I am proud to have been part of her undergraduate journey and look forward to being inspired by her commencement speech!”
When asked what advice she has for her fellow Class Of 2023 graduates, she offers this: “Whatever it is that you want in this life, get It, go for it, latch on to it. Don’t lose sight of it and don’t you dare let anyone, be it a person, a standard, or a concept, tell you that you cannot do it or that you are not worthy! Whether you are 10 years old or 80, nothing can stop you. Be stubborn and challenge anything that tries.”
— Mimi Ko Cruz