By Julia Lougheed, Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA), PC Visual and Performing Arts
Outfitted with piercings, colorful rainbow pins, and glamorous acrylic nails, Daniel Segovia knows who he is and feels comfortable in his skin.
Talk with Daniel for a while and you’ll eventually hear him say, “Everything has a story.” Especially when he’s talking about food. “When you go to a restaurant and you see all the attention to detail, it’s a story being told,” he says, describing how great meat can taste when it comes from local farms with humanely treated animals.
Growing up, a feeling of contentment around food was a common experience for Daniel. Part of a close Hispanic family, Daniel’s childhood was filled with gatherings centered around the sharing of food and stories. Since the passing of his grandparents, these cherished family gatherings have become few and far between. “When the matriarch and patriarch passed away, the cornerstone crumbled,” Daniel laments.
Now, as a form of self-care, Daniel cooks meals using recipes he inherited from his grandparents, which allows him to continue telling his family’s story. Daniel’s favorite meal? The burgers he and his grandfather made in Snowflake, Arizona, from locally sourced beef, and butchered, he exclaimed, “right there!”
While the smell of beef on a grill brings back fond memories of cooking with his grandfather, it also stirs up a very different memory for Daniel—his time working in a morgue. During his forensics training, he encountered a case involving burn trauma, and that experience was so vivid it temporarily changed the way he viewed his favorite food.
While it might seem morbid to most, Daniel found his time working with the deceased inspiring. “Everything has a story,” he said. “Even the dead .” A graduate of Phoenix College (PC) Administration of Justice Studies and Forensic Technology programs in 2019, which provided a visit to the Medical Examiner’s office and led to the morgue internship, Daniel knew he was in the right place. “This is where I need to be,” he recounted. “When you see a body in the morgue and the medical examiner comes in, they’re figuring out what happened to this person, what that part of their story was.”
Daniel has worked with bodies in various states of decay, always eager to understand what the person’s life looked like before they died. In 2024, he completed a Crime Scene Investigation Certificate at PC and transferred to ASU for a Bachelor’s in Forensic Science and Technology. His dream is to work in forensic pathology.
If, like Daniel, you’re eager to uncover the science behind crime scenes and the stories only the dead can tell, explore PC’s forensics program, which offers an Associate in Applied Science (AAS) in Forensic Science, a Certificate of Completion (CCL) in Crime Scene Investigation, and a CCL in Fingerprint Identification and Photography.
Not sure yet what program you want to study? Sign up for a campus tour! As a member of PC’s Outreach and Recruitment team, Daniel will spark your interest in some possibilities with a story. Or two.