From homelessness to advocate, Tri-Cities MLK Spirit winner is ‘shining example’
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- She overcame homelessness to earn a doctorate and serve her community
- She supports migrant students in Pasco as a graduation specialist
- Aranda won the 2026 MLK Jr. Spirit Award for advocacy, service and leadership
From overcoming homelessness to serving others in need, a Pasco mother has persisted through great adversity. Now she’s being honored for her commitment to helping others.
Nayeli Berenice Aranda Hernandez recalls studying for class one night at Columbia Basin College in Pasco, sitting in the Academic Success Center.
Next to her, her young daughter colored on a piece of paper.
At the time, the pair was living at the Tri-City Union Gospel Mission. They missed the bus back to the shelter and didn’t make it in time to stay overnight. She was in tears, holding her daughter’s hand with nowhere to stay for the night.
Since that time, Aranda earned her master’s degree in clinical social work and doctorate in education with a specialization in organizational leadership. She did all this while navigating the complex and politically fraught Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, process.
She is the 2026 recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. Spirit Award, a prestigious recognition of community members whose work in the Tri-Cities reflects the spirit, philosophy and teachings of the late civil rights leader.
Aranda, 34, will be honored at 5:30 p.m. Monday after the annual Columbia Basin College bell-ringing ceremony at the MLK Jr. statue outside the T building on the Pasco campus.
“I am so impressed by this year’s winner of the (MLK Jr.) Spirit Award. Dr. Aranda is a shining example of commitment to our community, working tirelessly to ensure that marginalized and underrepresented voices are heard,” CBC President Dr. Rebekah Woods said.
‘Peaceful resistance’
Aranda has lived in the Tri-Cities for 29 years, after arriving from Mexico at age 5. She dropped out of high school at 15 to live in Illinois, but returned later to graduate from New Horizons High School through a dropout prevention program.
Aranda received full-ride scholarships to Heritage University, Walla Walla University, Columbia Basin College and National University. She earned Dissertation of the Year at National University and the Excellence Award from Heritage University for being the only social worker in her class to graduate with a 4.0 grade-point average.
“As a DACA recipient, social worker, first-generation Latina woman, doctor and single mother, my life embodies the unfinished work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and what he spoke about. I feel connected to his spirit through resilience, inclusion and continuing to rise through systems that were not built in my mind.”
“My existence is an act of peaceful resistance. I try to lead with compassion.”
She’s worked for the Pasco School District for eight years, currently as a graduation specialist for the migrant program at Stevens Middle School. She serves students who have migrated for agricultural work in the last three years, or whose parents are migrant workers.
It’s a full-circle role for her — she was a migrant student herself and a first-generation college student.
There are about 1,400 students or up to 800 families who qualify for the migrant program in the Pasco School District, Aranda said.
“We have the responsibilities of coordinating services and ensuring that students are receiving social and emotional support,” she said. “We’re advocates during meetings. We’re social workers, connecting them to community resources that may include basic needs, health, career and beyond.”
“To me, every day that I show up to work is a blessing. Having that opportunity to give back to people who I connect with means the world to me. I give my everything.”
‘Education transforms society’
Aranda goes above and beyond her job description.
For the 120 students she supports at Stevens Middle School, she plans something special once a month — a multicultural day, trips to watch professional sports teams play or a behind-the-scenes look inside a local business.
She’s always looking for ways to create experiences for students, and teach them the value of hard work and service.
“There’s this saying in education that (a child) needs one consistent person in their life to ensure that they have a chance. I haven’t had just one person,” she said. “I’ve had different people at different stages of my life, and I just hope that the kids who come across my path have hope, even for a moment. To me, at that moment, they are the most important person in my life and I want them to know that.”
In the Tri-Cities community, Aranda is the chair of the Hispanic Academic Achievers Program, and volunteers for the Make-A-Wish Foundation in Southeastern Washington and the Tri-Cities Immigrant Coalition. She is active in the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Tri-Cities Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the CBC Foundation scholarship program.
“Education transforms society,” she said. “I am living proof of (King Jr.’s) vision that talent and purpose are not just bound by status, documentation or any origin.”
This story was originally published January 19, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
