University of Texas – Austin

Hi, y'all! I grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College. At Harvard, I majored in Folklore and Mythology with a minor in Spanish and Global Health and Health Policy. I was president of Response Peer Counseling, vice president of Harvard College Debate Union, and treasurer of Advocating Success for Kids. I was also a supervisor at Harvard Square Summer Homeless Shelter. I have ten years of experience as a teacher and tutor, including serving as a peer tutor and library educator at Harvard. After graduation, I taught high school debate and was a college advisor with Impact America, an AmeriCorps program. I also taught debate for Smith College. I then went on to teach debate at Success Academy Harlem North Central Middle School, one of New York City's top charter schools. I am currently a rape crisis advocate in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and am a member of the ACLU of Alabama's Smart Justice Organizing School. In my free time, I volunteer as a mentor with Trans Mentor Project, work on mutual aid projects across Alabama, and go hiking.

In the fall of 2012, I started applying to numerous colleges alone. As a first-generation, low-income student with a single parent, I learned everything independently. Eventually, my hard work in high school paid off and I was accepted to MIT. I completed my degree and my pre-med requirements in 2017 but decided to fulfill another passion: helping student access and succeed in college. I have served as a first-year college advisor for a cohort of nearly 80 students in the Greater Boston Area helping students apply to and get through college. As an advisor, I took a holistic approach, ensuring that students' academic, financial, professional, and personal needs were all considered. Then, I worked as a college readiness teacher for approximately 215 9th and 10th graders in San Antonio, TX and helped students practice their resume writing, drafting personal statements, and providing psychoeducational curricula (e.g., the importance of grit, coping during stressful times, finding support).  I now utilize my experiences so that other students do not need to go through the same challenging experience of applying to colleges on their own.