Lupe Miranda, Healthcare Professional and Scholarship Winner

A Cure for Inequality

As a first generation student, Lupe Miranda didn’t know how she would pay for college— or what to expect from higher education at all, for that matter. She knew what she wanted to do, though: make healthcare accessible to her community.

“Take advantage of all the resources that are out there. Even when you think you can’t relate to anybody or that there’s no support, there is.”

“I’ve never been to a clinic or a hospital where the doctor treating me was Latino or Latina,” she said. From a young age, she’d noticed the prevalence of language barriers and cultural misunderstandings among medical treatment centers in her hometown of Chicago, and knew something had to change.

Without any role models in the field, Miranda made the most of the resources at her disposal; she enrolled in a college preparatory program at her high school and networked with community members who did go to college. A coworker at her restaurant hosting job gave her valuable direction.

“I thought I wanted to be a nurse or something,” said Miranda. “But one of the servers who went to undergrad— he’s Latino, too— would talk to me about [my career ambitions].”

“Scholarships.com was useful for me to put all the filters in. With Google, you can’t really do that; it gives you way too many.”

Through their conversations, Miranda learned that her career aspirations of opening her own clinic and doing medical research were the duties of a doctor rather than a nurse or physician’s assistant. Following that dream would entail hard work and many years of expensive medical school. But she was up to the task.

As a high school senior, Miranda enrolled in a Senior Seminar course that allocated daily time for scholarship research. She looked for scholarships dedicated to students in her circumstances: first-generation, Latina, with financial need. Scholarships.com’s personalized matching tools were, in particular, a great help in her search.

“Scholarships.com was useful for me to put all the filters in,” she said. “With Google, you can’t really do that; it gives you way too many.”

Through Scholarships.com and the Thrive Scholar college preparatory program, Miranda applied for both competitive funds and noncompetitive funds to maximize her financial aid prospects. All the while, she kept up with her studies, achieving great academic success in her dual enrollment courses to build up the skills she knew she would need in medical school.

From huge, prestigious awards like the Jack Kent Cooke College Scholarship to targeted, local funds like Lakeside Bank’s Write On award for Chicago seniors, Miranda’s applications paid off, earning her over $275,000 total towards her college education at Stanford University.

“Aside from just the money,” she added in regards to the Jack Kent Cooke award, “I get an advisor, which is so helpful.” The connections and support systems her scholarships offer her have been especially valuable to her college experience as a first-generation student.

“My grandpa is my main caregiver,” said Miranda, reflecting on the most rewarding part of her efforts. “Education was something that he always valued, but he didn’t have the opportunity to pursue. So it’s really nice that now I get to do that at no cost to him.”

Making a change as a medical professional has always been Miranda’s goal. Even when her path was unclear, she put in the work to move forward and learn as much as she could to make her vision a reality.

“Take advantage of all the resources that are out there,” she advised students with ambitious dreams. “Even when you think you can’t relate to anybody or that there’s no support, there is.”

Sign up to access college-planning resources and receive your own personalized scholarship matches today at scholarships.com/registration/account.