When asked how he would leave his mark on Point Park University, Dannys Marrero replied, “I’m a military-student-athlete-drag queen, just saying.”

Marrero, a 20-year-old political science major, has quite the all-encompassing co-curricular life.

“You can do whatever you want to do,” Marrero said. “That’s basically what I feel like I’ve been demonstrating at Point Park.”

Marrero was raised in Puerto Rico by his military family. His mother was eventually assigned the task of moving around the states, and Marrero had no choice but to travel with her starting at the age of 10.

He has tattooed up his leg a list of all the places he has lived since Puerto Rico, including Kentucky, Florida and New York City.

“Point Park is like, thirteenth on the lineup,” Marrero said in regard to this list.

In his early years, he never contemplated choosing colleges because he never thought he would be granted the chance to go to one. However, he ran his way straight into scholarship money.

Marrero began running track and cross country his sophomore year of high school in New York City. Queens quickly became his favorite place he had lived thus far.

“That’s where a lot of things were set in motion to allow me to become myself,” Marrero said.

Running was one of these “things,” and as he moved from New York to Tampa, Fl., Marrero started facing some tough competition.

“When I moved to Florida, I thought I was hot stuff, but I was wrong,” Marrero said. He had shortened his five-minute mile down to just 4 minutes, 30 seconds.

Moving around as much as he did, Marrero faced other challenges as well.

“Coming here, I had to learn English in about a year,” Marrero said. “I could have either learned English in one year, or I was going to be held back a year or two.”

He believes minoring in broadcast at Point Park helped him with his broken English and fixed his pronunciation.

While studying broadcast, Marrero helped create ‘On Point with Politics.’ He became the first freshman to create his own show at the university.

Point Park was also the birth place of Marrero’s drag persona, ‘Alexa Killer.’ She is 2 years old and thriving. Marrero did not initially think he could pull off the art of drag, but Point Park led him to this newfound creativity.

“After I came here and saw my first show, I was like, ‘I can do that!’” Marrero said.

Marrero also signed a contract with the Army after his first year at Point Park. He became the only student at the university with an ROTC contract and followed in his parents’ footsteps.

After completing basic training a few years ago, Marrero made the journey back to Point Park.

“For now, I’m just focusing on my Army contract and finishing my degree so that I can commission for the ROTC,” Marrero said. But he wishes to someday get into policy-making.

In his time at Point Park, he has learned a lot about himself.

“As a person, I became more artistic and more open to other things,” Marrero said.

“I like Point Park,” Marrero said. “I get to meet new people, and that’s more meaningful to me than anything else.”

He suggests that other students get out of their shells and spend their time at school productively.

“I’ve proven that you can come to Point Park and do whatever, and then obviously you have to work hard on it,” Marrero said. “You’ll enjoy college more that way.”