Christina Faiz grows tomatoes in her office.
A disability limits her from gardening outdoors, so Christina grows her produce with the help of an aquaponics system inside her office.
Along with other fresh crops like peppers and cucumbers, Christina keeps an incubator that can house 24 eggs. She and her husband sell the eggs to their neighbors as a means of cultivating a healthier lifestyle for themselves and those around them. They also raised 12 cows, 35 chickens, and four ducks on land they purchased in her home state of Texas.
"We want to live off our own land," she says. "I want to let other people experience what I experience with great food, especially with the eggs."
This setup is more than a means to produce food — it serves as a testament to her ability to adapt and thrive in any environment. After all, her journey is one marked by overcoming obstacles through determination and grit. Today, she is on her way to earning a second degree from the University of Arizona Global Campus (UAGC) and is heavily involved in working with the student population. However, her path to achieving college honors and building a sustainable homestead was paved by escaping conflict and recovering from other tragic circumstances – all of which have shaped who Christina is today.
Escaping Terror to Thriving Stateside
Christina was born to mixed parents, and her father is Persian. When she was three years old, her family moved from Oklahoma to Iran, but flying wasn't on the agenda for transport.
"They decided they were going to drive there," Christina explains. "This was in the 70s, so we went in a Volkswagen bug. We drove to New York, then took a boat, and then we drove to Istanbul. Before that, it was London, England, and we went on our way."
Christina has fond memories of Iran, where she enjoyed a happy childhood. At that time, women were part of a progressive society, and the country was thriving.
"Women in Iran are highly educated, dentists, lawyers. They could buy land," she says. "Women had freedoms. There were no coverings on women."
In 1980, everything changed, and a then 11-year-old Christina and her family fled the country to escape the Islamic revolution. They emigrated to the United States to live with her grandmother, but her father stayed behind to help those of the Baha'i faith.
"I was in the midst of all that stuff," she recalls. "I experienced some really bad things that you see on the news, tortures and hangings."
Escaping stateside was the refuge her family needed, but moving to the rural town of Tyler, TX, was a significant culture shock. Worried about what the locals would think about her Persian background, Christina often had to feign an Italian heritage to protect herself from prejudice and disassociate from any potential backlash due to her origins.
"My last name is Faizi, but we had to change it to Faiz and take the I off, so that we didn't have any relation to the Baha'i faith," she explains.
Going to church with her grandmother was one method of acclimation in America, but Christina continues to take steps to preserve her culture. She speaks both English and Farsi, and she is taking Farsi classes to brush up on her conversational skills.
School As a Constant
No matter what happens in Christina's life, she follows one piece of advice from her late father: take a class.
"My dad was always about education," she says. "When he was alive, he kept saying 'just take one class. Just take one class, so you don't forget what the meaning of education is.'"
It was advice she didn't take lightly.
Through raising three children, a divorce, remarriage, and working full-time, Christina made a point to always take classes, from child development courses at a local community college to typing lessons. Ultimately, when Christina returned to school to pursue a degree in 2019, she did it for her dad as well as herself.
After bouncing between child development, journalism, and English as fields of study, she finally decided on marketing. Christina had worked in the jewelry department at Nordstrom for 15 years, a job that served as her first introduction into the world of marketing and branding — and sparked her desire to promote her aforementioned gardening knowledge.
"I really love that whole aspect of marketing," she says. "I want to get a marketing degree so I can market all this, and entrepreneurship, because that's what I love."
She left Nordstrom in 2018 and eventually started taking classes, but the journey from work to school wasn't without obstacles. Shortly after starting her undergraduate degree program at UAGC, Christina was in a head-on car collision, breaking her knee into 60 pieces and sustaining several other serious injuries.
Recovery was a years-long process, and the process continues today.
Christina describes herself as a different person after her accident, saying it "knocked out" unhealthy habits and allowed her to restart her education. An echo of her late father's trademark advice came from a call with her UAGC advisor who brought her back into academia — and got her walking again.
"I got on with the counselor, and she asked, 'Why don't you just take a class?'" Christina remembers. "After I took that class, my brain started firing up, and I started walking."
Three years later, in 2024, Christina graduated with a bachelor's degree in marketing. Alongside her diploma, she holds a certificate through the Delta Alpha Pi (DAPi) International Honor Society, a distinction that recognizes the academic accomplishments of students with disabilities. She is now on the path to earning an MBA at UAGC and hopes to graduate in 2026.
"God only gives you what you can handle, and I guess he thinks I can handle a lot," she laughs.
A Future at UAGC
Christina has been through a lot, but at UAGC, she is just getting started. In addition to her graduate studies, Christina is a UAGC Student Success Assistant through her work-study program, and she is a UAGC CHAMPS peer mentor and tutor.
Already a community staple in her own right, Christina also is a UAGC student ambassador and helps moderate several student Facebook groups. By spending significant time on those channels, she's able to apply her marketing skills across several online mediums.
"This online platform is huge, and students can feel lost in the shuffle," she explains, "so we can refer them to the tools and resources they need."
Those resources are ones Christina took advantage of during her own undergraduate career. She cites that the Writing Center has helped her for paper review, as well as the live tutors.
However, it's her own mentor, Michelle Ruiz, who has been a touchstone for her journey, and through her full-circle journey to becoming a CHAMPS mentor. The connections made with her mentees, alongside the joy Christina derives from working to assist her fellow students, has provided Christina with her latest goal: to eventually become a UAGC faculty member.
"I was doing CHAMPS but on the student side, and now I'm doing it on the University side. I truly love it, so I want to be able to work with students and mentees however I can, and I love the UAGC community."
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The Bachelor of Arts in Marketing program is not designed to meet the state educational requirements for a specific professional license or certification in any state.
Certain degree programs may not be available in all states.