Latina’s First Foundation: Melissa’s Story
At 17, with two kids to care for and an unclear future, Melissa Chavez was determined that her circumstances wouldn’t define her. After finishing high school, she attended one year of college using scholarship money she’d earned through a school assignment, and finished with straight As. “I didn’t have any financial or academic guidance,” she shares, “so I took a break for four years to take care of my kids.” She was unsure of what was next, but she knew she didn’t like being stagnant.
Melissa called her high school principal and told him she was unhappy. He gave her a job at the high school, and helped her enroll in her first class at Front Range Community College. “That’s truly all I needed,” she says, "just someone to give me some guidance.”
Having always loved math, Melissa’s first class back in school was pre-calculus, and she gained confidence quickly. In the next semester, she took two classes, then three.
“Before I knew it, I was balancing full time school and work,” she says. “It was the most fulfilled I’d been in a very long time.”
Now in her senior year at the University of Colorado Boulder, Melissa studies electrical engineering. “The subfields that interest me most are optics, photonics, and quantum,” she explains. “There’s a big need for putting theoretical ideas into practice, into industry, into manufacturing, and I want to work to bridge that gap, to put it into people’s hands.”
Melissa earned a scholarship to assist with her education from Latinas First Foundation, who she became connected with after being selected to be the commencement speaker for Front Range Community College’s graduation. “I spoke in front of 5,000 people, and it opened so many doors.” Soon after, Melissa was encouraged to give another speech, for Coursera, which led to even more contacts and opportunities. Through this, she was connected to Latinas First, who offered her a full-ride scholarship funded through Prosperity Denver.
“These funds make it possible for me to continue to attend school without delays,” she says. “I can get through this chapter fast, and start my career. Being a mom and going to school is one of the hardest things you can do. There aren’t enough hours in the day. I have to be headstrong and comfortable with how I’m spending my time, because I won’t get it back. If I didn’t have funds from Latinas First and Prosperity Denver, I wouldn’t have the ability to go to school.”
In addition to funding, Melissa is grateful for the human support offered by Latinas First. She meets regularly with her mentor who makes academic and professional connections for her. “It’s been invaluable,” says Melissa. “The scholarship is great, but the support is so much more than I could ask for.”
When Melissa graduated from high school, she says she felt like she was on the top of the world. “It was like I had done the impossible,” she says. “It was easy to feel like I didn’t need to do more. I had proven to my family that I could go beyond where they had, and I was okay with that for a little bit. But now, my kids have the chance to see that it’s normal to go to college, to become an engineer. I want them to know that anything they put their minds to, even if it’s difficult, is possible.”
