Vanessa Barrios

As a first-generation college student at UC Berkeley, Vanessa developed a passion for helping students navigate higher education. A scholar at heart, she studied sociology and psychology and utilized Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory in her mission to help students. Wanting to understand risk and resilience in youth, she received her Masters in Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education, and her School Counseling masters at the University of Southern California. She headed to the bay area to become a college counselor for a local charter school. Vanessa loved the east coast, she returned to Boston to become the director of counseling and student services for another charter network. After being a stay-at-home mom for three years, Vanessa still had a passion for the transition between secondary and higher education, that she was a freshman admissions reader for her alma mater before making her transition into her current role as the Student Life Coordinator for SPCS. 

She was born and raised in Los Angeles, did two bicoastal moves to San Francisco and Boston, before resettling in Los Angeles again. She has two school-aged children and loves to chauffer them around town during her spare time. She is active in Brazilian jiu jitsu, loves to read, watch the latest top 10 on Netflix and travel.