When Utah Valley University grad and current Master of Business Administration (MBA) student Arlene Dominguez started college, she thought she knew what to expect. But after several false starts and life circumstances that left her homeless, the future seemed a lot less clear.

“It just kind of hit me,” she said. “I remember I was sitting there in my car, and I was just like, ‘Where do I go? What do I do?’ I just accepted the fact that no one else was going to help me. So I had to move on.”

Now, with a bachelor’s degree in business under her belt, an MBA on the way, and a successful startup business called Killer Spice, Dominguez is proud she never gave up on her education — even through the times when it seemed impossible.

“I’m just very happy. That's all I can say,” she said. “Just…very happy, very grateful. It's not something I saw for myself, and it just further proves why this was such a good decision.”

Growing up, Dominguez faced family challenges, caring for her younger siblings while her mother, a single parent, worked to support the family. In her caretaking role, Dominguez often experimented with flavors and spices to brighten simple meals.

She carried this experience to UVU when she began taking culinary arts classes. But she said the difficulty of being a full-time student and working full time overwhelmed her.

“I was just not ready for it,” she said. “So I didn't do so well. I just flunked out. I didn't show up to classes, I prioritized my job, and ultimately, I just was like, ‘I don't need college. It's fine.’ So I left. And then I came back with a passion of continuing culinary school, and I just … I couldn't commit to coming.”

Soon, she was forced to drop out of school to find a place to live and get her life back in order. But she told herself that if it was meant to be, she’d come back one day and earn her degree.

As Dominguez entered UVU’s Woodbury School of Business, she found herself falling in love with the business world and decided to put her culinary experience into practice in a different way. She connected with chef Calvin Chan, also a UVU alum, and founded Killer Spice, creating new flavor combinations to sell at local farmers markets and eventually online. UVU’s Chelsea and Casey Baugh Entrepreneurship Institute supported her new company with crucial grants and funding, she said.

“We built our website and we started attending trade shows this year,” Dominguez said. “And those were amazing opportunities — [I’m] very thankful because those were opportunities given to us by the Entrepreneurship Institute. We met buyers from Walmart, buyers from Target, buyers from Sprouts. Now, we're just working to build that up. And I just wouldn't have guessed that two years ago that was going to be an option for us.”

Dominguez and her company also won $1,000 as a finalist in the Tim Draper Utah Entrepreneurship Challenge, hosted by the Lassonde Entrepreneurship Institute at the University of Utah.

Dominguez said she hopes UVU students know there are resources available to help them achieve their educational goals — resources she relied on, too.

“Some people don't realize that if you're hungry, all of a sudden you [might think you] can't go to school … you can — there's a resource for you,” she said. “If you have to go to the doctor, you know, it's not that you can't go — you can have it here. And those are things that people should definitely take advantage of. It relieves a lot of stress. It helps you so that way, you can focus on studying. You can get your work done. And teachers will work with you as well. They are here for you. They are here to help you.”

After surviving all the uncertainty and hardship in her life, Dominguez said she’s grateful that UVU is a place for everyone. “You don't have to know what you want to do. You don't have to know the life you're going to achieve five years down the road. Just take it as an experience in this world, in this life. Enjoy it, and you'll find something that's meant for you. You'll find something that is supposed to help you get where you need to be.”