The clothing is the first thing you see when walking into senior Danielle Walker’s apartment — a pink, mint green and black dress that partially covers the black cap and gown beneath it.

The outfits hang on her closet door, the dangling 2014 tassel visible even from a distance. Danielle will wear these outfits together when she walks across the graduation stage in a few weeks.

But first, she has to make it through the last stage of college: the dry weeks leading up to finals.

Tonight, she has placed her laptop on her bed, ready to view a two-minute news video for class, write a Blackboard blog post due at 11:59 p.m. and finish reading the BuzzFeed article currently filling her screen.

Like any other college student, Danielle has had her fair share of nightly assignments like these over the years. She’s sat in lecture halls, her hand cramping from extensive note-taking, her mouth occasionally indulging itself in a yawn, her eyes half-open relative to her concentration.

It has paid off — Danielle is set to graduate with a degree in interdisciplinary studies this spring.

It won’t be in psychology, like she originally planned, but that doesn’t mean she’s not on the road to success. She will be starting her master’s at MU, establishing a career with plenty of potential.

On the days Danielle is tired, the reasons are often the same as those of her peers.

She may have been up late studying to maintain the 3.0 GPA she currently has. She may have been engaged in one of many activities in the Columbia community in which she’s involved, which includes tutoring and mentoring underprivileged students preparing for their GEDs, as well as working as a Diversity Peer Educator.

But when Danielle is most tired, it’s usually because of her 3-year-old daughter, Janelle. When she’s happiest, it’s often also because of Janelle.

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