When Life Changes the Timeline 

Branded Content Presented by Santa Barbara City College Office of Communications

No college experience is the same, in part because some of us know exactly what we want to do right away, while others need a little more time. And sometimes you do know, but life, as it often does, gets in the way. 

Such was the case for Sara Firestone, who didn’t anticipate starting college at just 17 years old. But, due to a major jaw surgery in her late high school years, that’s precisely where life took her. 

It was “a pretty intense experience,” she tells me over the phone. A lengthy recovery made a traditional high school schedule challenging, so she earned her GED at 16 and enrolled at Santa Barbara City College soon after, where the flexible course load allowed her to continue healing while pursuing her education.

Her early college start may have been intimidating at first, but Firestone seized the opportunity. Unlike many students thrust into college unsure of their direction, Firestone had a clear vision of her career path. She had long gravitated toward a “helping profession” and was torn between teaching and psychology, but with psychologists in her family and an early interest in child development, the choice became clear. 

From the start, SBCC felt like the right place to begin that journey. “I feel like I grew a lot during my time there,” she confides. “My confidence in myself and myself as a student really grew.”

Courses in social psychology and human sexuality reinforced her interest in the field, and the campus environment strengthened her sense of belonging. “I really felt like the professors wanted you to succeed,” she recalls, “and gave you the tools and the opportunity to be really successful.”

Peer support mattered, too.“I think that was another aspect where everyone was really working together,” she reflects on collaborating with her fellow SBCC students. “There wasn’t that competitive environment that I encountered later at UCLA, or I see at other schools.” 

Firestone especially valued the smaller class sizes at SBCC, which she says “made it easy to connect with professors and classmates.” The sense of community “really made a difference in my learning experience.”

At SBCC, Firestone also joined the Honors Program, which offered a smaller cohort, closer academic relationships, and dedicated counselor guidance to ensure she stayed on track for UC transfer. SBCC’s counselors also provided accessible, proactive, and unwavering support, especially as she spent about three years at SBCC completing additional coursework, including extra math and statistics requirements stemming from her early departure from high school.

When it came time to transfer to a four-year university, she had two top choices: UCLA and UC Berkeley. Ultimately, she chose UCLA for its strong psychology department, proximity to family, and an Applied Developmental Psychology minor that offered hands-on work and a pathway to an early-childhood education teaching license. 

In 2013, she graduated from UCLA with a BA in psychology and an Applied Developmental Psychology minor. After college, Firestone spent a year working as a behavioral therapist with children on the autism spectrum. “Because, I thought maybe I wanted to go that route,” she recalls. Ultimately, though, she decided to move forward with psychology. 

For her master’s, she chose to study at Pepperdine University and earned a degree in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy. She then accrued clinical hours in agencies contracted with local schools, providing therapy across multiple campuses before earning her license.

Once licensed, she moved into private practice and eventually joined the Anxiety and Panic Disorders Clinic in Santa Barbara, a small group practice where clinicians share a specialty in anxiety disorders while operating independently, and where she still works as a marriage and family therapist. 

Over time, Firestone developed a focus on perinatal mental health — supporting women during pregnancy and postpartum — pursuing additional training and earning certification in the field. Drawing on her background in child development and family systems, she emphasizes early intervention during what she calls one of life’s most profound transitions. 

“And then the more I learned about it,” she recalls, “and the more I actually worked with women during those transitions, I just became more and more passionate about it.” Her passion deepened tenfold after becoming a mother herself, reinforcing just how vital support is during that time. “It’s just a really, I think, a profound time to support someone.” 

Just as Firestone now supports others through major life transitions, her own path was shaped by an institution that met her where she was. She may have had an unconventional start to her college experience, but in the end, she credits SBCC as a crucial foundation for everything that followed. “It was a great experience for me,” she reflects. “Especially as a younger student entering college.” If she could go back, Firestone says she would choose to attend SBCC again.

 “SBCC provided a nurturing environment where I could explore my interests and grow personally and professionally.”

---

This article was paid for by Santa Barbara City College. For more information on Santa Barbara City College and the hundreds of programs they offer, visit sbcc.edu or call (805) 965-0581. If you are an SBCC alumnus, please join SBCC Alumni Connect at sbccfoundation.org/alumni.