Ed Note: The following is a news release courtesy of College of the Canyons.

A College of the Canyons student and Pennsylvania native has achieved her dreams of being accepted into the University of California, Los Angeles.

Cassidy Henry has had the hopes and dreams of attending UCLA since she was 13-years-old.

Born in a dwindling manufacturing town of Ransom, Pennsylvania, Henry’s dream was put on temporary hiatus as a high school senior was admitted to every UC campus she applied to — except the one that mattered most to her.

“I knew I wanted to go there for a long time, but I was an out-of-state student and we didn’t have a lot of money,” Henry said about UCLA.

In 2013, Henry, unwilling to give up, enrolled at College of the Canyons, after researching her academic options and living situations online.

Henry saw that COC has a Transfer Alliance Program (TAP) that gave her the key reason to chose COC.

Through TAP, College of the Canyons faculty and counselors help students create education plans that fulfill UCLA admissions criteria. Providing other meaningful linkages to UCLA, TAP offers on-campus informational meetings, tours, library privileges, and other UCLA cultural and athletic events that TAP students can attend.

At age 18, Henry headed to College of the Canyons on her own, seeing a clear path to achieving her dream.

“My parents were rooting for me to get out and be someone, but they were a little nervous about me moving across the country by myself. Still, they understood the opportunities in California.”

Now at age 20, the two long years of hard work, perseverance, and faith in her own willing academic direction, Henry’s dream has finally come as now a confident Westward-bound incoming UCLA transfer student.

“Cassidy is a special person with an incredibly strong work ethic,” said Patty Robinson, Dean, Social Science and Business Division and Acting Coordinator, COC Honors. “Her story of what she did to get here and how persistent she’s been is remarkable.”

Henry worked with Robinson for TAP, as well as the Honors Program. Henry also served as an officer on the COC Honors Club, working with adviser Lisa Malley, since shortly after she came to the college, and served as a member of the Honors Steering Committee during her final year at COC.

When she goes to UCLA, Henry will be a double major in Linguistics and Computer Science, and Russian Language and Literature.

In fact, it was UCLA’s Russian Flagship program, which enables students to achieve professional-level competence in Russian through both domestic and abroad studies, that first attracted Henry — who studied abroad in Russia on the U.S. Department of State’s NSLI-Y program in 2012 — to now becoming a Bruin.

Crediting the resources and opportunities at College of the Canyons, without TAP Henry dreams may have never become a reality. In addition to TAP, the help she received from the Financial Aid Office was also very critical to her success.

By working closely with the staff to secure Pell Grants and loans, Henry completed her coursework at College of the Canyons and was able to cover her living expenses.

As she leaves COC for UCLA, Henry says, “it’s the beginning of much more than a new chapter in her academic career.

“The opportunities here are just so different than at home — it seems like everyone you meet from that area who left was poor and is leaving to go somewhere else,” Henry said.

“I didn’t just move to go to school here, I see myself starting a life as well.”