Daisy Villanueva

Daisy Villanueva is currently a freshman student at the University of South Dakota. Daisy was born in Las Vegas, Nevada and has spent most of her life moving across states, transferring between schools, and not having a permanent home. The sporadic nature of her life caused many obstacles during her academic career, so she often had to put her family responsibilities before her schoolwork or face consequences from transferring between schools. Through it all, Daisy used her dedication to overcoming obstacles, and her strong compassion for her family and others who face similar struggles to be a successful student and make the decision to pursue higher education. During her time in high school, Daisy attended University of South Dakota’s Upward Bound pre-college program and participated in the Research Apprenticeship program, during which she studied a streptococcus peptide 0149 and presented her findings to doctors and lab assistants at USD.