Running Toward a New Legacy
9/29/2026
Cynthia Herrera is blazing her own trail. As a first-generation college student, a dedicated public health scholar, and a two-time Big West Champion with the UC Irvine women’s track & field team, she is proof that all her family’s hard work and sacrifices were worth it.
Cynthia was born and raised in Santa Clarita, California. Her family moved to the United States from Puebla, Mexico, about 30 years ago with the hope of providing a better life for the next generation. Cynthia is the youngest of three children, and in many ways, she is the fulfillment of that quiet, unwavering dream.
"My parents just wanted to give me and my brothers better opportunities than they had," she said.
Now a junior at UC Irvine, pursuing a degree in public health policy, and a key member of the Anteaters’ cross country/track & field program, Cynthia is doing more than taking advantage of those opportunities. She is rewriting what is possible.
The Dream School
Education has always been important to the Herrera family, so Cynthia had college aspirations from a young age. When it came time to choose a school, Cynthia knew wherever she landed would need to be somewhere that met both her academic and athletic ambitions – and it was UC Irvine that checked both boxes.
“When I was deciding colleges, I first had to decide what I wanted my major to be,” Cynthia explained. “I was really leaning towards public health policy, so I started searching schools that had a great public health program and that also had a good cross country and track program. UCI was the top choice, and getting in was such an amazing thing. It’s something I’m very proud of and it means a lot knowing that I’ve created my own path that my family didn’t have before me.”
Cynthia’s interest in public health started with the wave of awareness that followed the COVID-19 pandemic. The prospect of working at the intersection of science, data, and community health drew her in, and now, after completing her prerequisite statistics and public health classes, she is starting to find her niche.
In the classroom, Cynthia enjoyed the research aspect of public health, including investigating risk factors and exposures. That led her to an internship at Kaiser Permanente with the COPE Health Scholars program, an experiential education and clinical training initiative for aspiring healthcare professionals. The hands-on experience helped to refine her interests and confirmed that epidemiology, which is the scientific study of health outcomes and diseases in specific populations, is the direction she wants to pursue.
“From my internship, I was able to learn more about what I like and don’t like, and epidemiology right now is something I’m very interested in,” Cynthia said. “I’ll be taking my first epidemiology class this fall.”
Roots in Running
Back in 2015, there was a nine-year-old girl lacing up her shoes for the first time at a youth running club. Her parents were eager to give their daughter an extracurricular activity outside of school, so they signed her up to join her cousin as part of the Storm Track Club. From there, Cynthia fell in love with the sport, continuing to run competitively in middle school and high school.
What she couldn’t have known at nine years old is that the sport she was falling in love with would one day take her to a Division I program and help open the doors to her pursuit of a college education.
The bigger picture started to come into focus her junior year at Canyon High School.
“I realized my junior year of high school that running could help me get into a school that I’ve always wanted to go to,” Cynthia said. “That is when I decided to train extra hard so I could meet all the recruitment times that schools were looking for.”
The training paid off as she won the Foothill League individual cross country title as a senior and went on to place among the top 20 at the CIF State Championships. Cynthia’s performances in cross country and the times she produced on the track were enough to make UC Irvine distance coach Casey Kear take notice.
“Cynthia caught our attention during her senior cross country season with how much she was improving,” Kear said. “We brought her in for a visit the following January where it became clear to me she was the kind of person we needed in our program. She made an immediate impact and has shown continued growth despite a setback last fall with an injury. She bounced back quickly, and Cynthia really just brings a toughness and determination to her training and racing that can't be taught. She makes everyone around her better, is laser focused on the task at hand, and brings a positive attitude to practice each day.”
History in the Making
In 2024-25, which was Cynthia’s freshman year, she and her UC Irvine teammates did something that had never been done before in program history: they won a Big West Women’s Track & Field Championship. It was the product of a season-long commitment, shared vision, and the kind of chemistry that separates good teams from great ones.
“It was awesome,” Cynthia said of the championship moment. “The fact that all of us were able to dedicate ourselves to our training, and then to be able to execute everything we learned and really push ourselves was cool to see.”
The Anteaters didn’t stop there. They did it again in 2026, defending their title in what Cynthia described as “the cherry on top.” With two more years left, she is already setting her sights on more.
“I hope we can do it again for my next two years,” she said.
Beyond the hardware, what Cynthia values the most about her experience as a student-athlete is the sense of belonging she has found within the program and on campus.
“I feel like I have met all of my people,” Cynthia said fondly. “Being part of this team has helped make this big adjustment in life easier because I have that family culture around me. I’ve never felt like I didn’t belong. My coach has always been good at making me feel like I belong on the start line and at school. It’s been very comforting to have these kinds of people in my life, and I just feel so supported.”
The transition to college classes and Division I competition wasn’t easy for Cynthia, especially since it wasn’t something any of her family members had gone through before. But it also wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle with the work ethic she learned from her parents, along with the support of her family, friends, and teammates.
One friend and teammate Cynthia has leaned on a lot is Marjourie Lopez, who is also a first-generation Latina student-athlete studying public health policy.
“That representation is so important,” Cynthia emphasized. “Being able to see someone like Marjourie who came from a similar background, and to succeed together in spaces where we might not always find people like us means a lot. I hope that as a Latina student-athlete at UCI, I can also inspire younger girls to believe they belong in college athletics and that they can pursue both their education and athletic goals.”
Pride in Every Stride
Every year from mid-September to mid-October, Hispanic Heritage Month serves as a cultural celebration, and for Cynthia, it is also something deeply personal.
“It means carrying a lot of pride in where I come from,” she said. “I’m representing my family and showing that the sacrifices they made can open doors for the next generation. Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month is beautiful because you appreciate the culture, background, and all the values that come with it.
“One of the biggest values I learned from my parents growing up was hard work. Seeing all the sacrifices they made for our family taught me to never take anything for granted. So things like family, being grateful, and showing up for those around me have carried into how I look at school and running, because even when things get difficult, I try to stay consistent and keep pushing.”
Cynthia will keep pushing through two more years of early morning practices, late-night study sessions, and the grind of being a student-athlete at the Division I level. She will keep working hard toward a career in epidemiology that could one day put her at the forefront of public health research. And she will continue to be a presence on campus that shows the younger Latina generation that they belong.