When Marianna De León (’24) looks back on her journey, she sees not only the challenges she and her mother overcame but also the unbreakable bond they forged through their shared strength.

Marianna has always been drawn to helping others, a trait shaped by her upbringing and the health challenges she faced over the past five years. Now, following her graduation from the University of North Texas with a bachelor’s degree in human development and family science, she reflects on her journey.

After high school, the Houston-area native attended community college while exploring her career options.

“I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do,” Marianna says. “I was leaning toward something like social work or child life, but I knew I wanted to work with families and with people in general — that's just something I’m really drawn to.”

By 2019, Marianna had decided to transfer to UNT, but her life took an unexpected turn.

“I got diagnosed with a rare blood disorder in January 2020 and that's actually what stopped me from coming to UNT,” Marianna says. “Unfortunately, there's a really rare side effect from the treatments that you might develop blood cancer, and that's what happened to me.”

Marianna paused her education, spending most of 2020 in the hospital undergoing chemotherapy, a bone marrow transplant and multiple inpatient stays. Complications from COVID-19 restrictions meant she was often isolated from visitors, but her mother, Olga De León, became her rock.

“She was really awesome,” Marianna says. “She got tested for COVID every time I needed to come to the hospital so she could stay with me, and then she wasn’t allowed to leave. She was almost like a patient.”

And while Marianna was cleared of blood cancer at the end of 2020 and ready to move forward with her life, a new challenge quickly presented itself: her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. While the news came as another heavy blow to the De León family, Marianna says it provided her with a unique opportunity.

“I was really honored that, in a way, I was able to return the favor, because there's not a lot of things you can give back for people who give you such a great gift,” Marianna says. “There’s a concept where they call the day that you get your bone marrow transplant your ‘rebirth day.’ So, we always say that my mom raised me again — I was born again, and she raised me again. I never imagined being able to give a little bit of that back.”

Marianna acted as part of her mother’s care team, which deepened their bond more than when Marianna was undergoing her own cancer treatments. After months of treatment, Olga achieved remission and Marianna continued her studies, finally at UNT. Though she felt conflicted leaving home during her mother’s recovery, she found support in her friends and the UNT community.

Once at UNT, Marianna continuously applied for scholarships and one day came across the Agnes Lucille Craft Greene Memorial Scholarship, which is awarded to students impacted by breast cancer. The scholarship is named in memory of Agnes Greene (’73) who passed away in 2015 after a long battle with breast cancer. Agnes and her husband, fellow UNT alumnus and former football player, “Mean” Joe Greene, have an incredible legacy at the university.

“I was so touched to see the scholarship and to be able to share about that in the application and after, because it was truly a unique experience,” Marianna says.

After being selected as a Greene Scholar during the 2023-24 academic year, Marianna, the other six scholars and their families were invited to a celebration event hosted by the Greene family.

“The Greene family was so sweet and down to earth, and I got to hear stories from other people who had someone important in their lives diagnosed with breast cancer,” Marianna says. “It was very emotional — but in a good way — to feel connected with people on campus who have this huge thing that happened to them, and to feel understood.”

Marianna says her experience as a Greene Scholar has not only been enriching and meaningful in connecting with others but also lifted some of the financial burden of college and eased stress. After some tough years, she says it was nice to have another opportunity for some positivity to come from her family’s experiences.

At UNT, Marianna maintained a high GPA while working part-time and completing an internship with Communities in Schools of North Texas, where she supported and empowered struggling students at Alexander Elementary in Denton.

Looking ahead, she plans to continue helping others in need.

“I know for a fact that I want to work with people experiencing grief and bereavement,” she says. “I just know that no matter what I do, I want to be supporting people who are going through some of the hardest times of their life. That’s just something I feel at home doing.”