Daniel Villa | Student

Where Opportunity Meets Hustle

Daniel Villa ’26 never envisioned himself spending a winter term in another country. It’s not that the idea wasn’t appealing to him; he simply found it far more practical to remain on home soil.

“I never considered going abroad,” he says. “I always thought it was too expensive. I intended to do my winter term courses on campus, because that's what I could afford.”

But thanks to some prodding from his mother and the generous support of the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, Villa’s final DePauw winter term landed him in an unexpected place: traveling around the Netherlands and learning about the country’s rich history and culture.

“I was going to museums every day,” he says. “We visited places like the Van Gogh Museum, the Dutch Resistance Museum and the Anne Frank House. We went to beautiful cities like Rotterdam, Amsterdam and the Hague. And the scholarship made it all possible. Otherwise I probably would have had to pull out a loan or deplete my entire savings.”

In addition to traveling with his fellow DePauw classmates and learning alongside them about the postcolonial history of the Netherlands, Villa kept busy with an extra project of his own that fulfilled the requirements of the Gilman Scholarship. He was responsible for documenting the ways that cities in the Netherlands have advocated for sustainable transportation.

“I have a very big interest in urban development, so I did an ethnography for bike lanes and emission zones,” he says. “I probably took over 500 pictures. I was primarily focusing on street signs and the legislation of strict zones that only bicycles or mopeds can use. They have also made a lot of progress towards zero emission laws, with cars and public transportation going fully electric.”

For Villa, taking on this added work didn’t intimidate him. He knows that creating opportunities for himself is often the result of consistent effort and determination, and he’s never been one to shy away from a challenge.

In the summer before his senior year, Villa interned with CARPLS, an organization that offers free legal advice to residents in his home city of Chicago. “I assisted underrepresented people and connected them with the resources they needed,” he says. “One of my proudest moments was going to community clinics and meeting ex-convicts who are trying to reintegrate themselves in society. It felt so empowering.”

Since this was an unpaid internship, Villa supplemented that work with an evening shift at a Chicago pizzeria, often logging 14-hour days between the two jobs. “It was crazy,” he admits. “I was managing a lot, but I was doing it proactively and efficiently. I came out more successful than ever, and I grew myself as an individual.”

Through his commitment to hard work, Villa has learned to appreciate the opportunities he’s been given and make the most of each one.

“If my parents just gave me everything, I probably wouldn’t value life the way I do,” he says. “I’m very thankful for the opportunities I have. I understand that I’m privileged to have some of these things, but I’ve also proven myself worthy of them.”

As a Posse scholar and a Hispanic studies major, Villa brings this same work ethic into the classroom. It’s a mindset that has helped him maximize his potential and set him up for future success.

“It’s an incredible opportunity to be able to be here,” says Villa. “Accepting that scholarship to go here is probably the best thing I could have done for my education and my professional development. They saw something in me. They showed me the door. All I had to do was open it, and that's exactly what I did.”