Dallas Noyce Scholars Program

I was in 5th grade when I emigrated. So, around 9...10 years old. It was a little bit complicated for me to learn the language but I knew that if I was a top student back in Mexico, I could be a top student here too.

And I was not going to let anybody tell me otherwise, since I've been told that my whole life. I like the experience of feeling, firstly lost, and then getting the concept.

My goal was to be able for me to get it in order to teach it to my peers because some of my peers were also struggling and just found myself -- the inner teacher in me to just want to help them out and like, "I know this, I'll help you out." I was trying to find a way for me to continue my education I knew I was scared about getting into debt. I couldn't find a way for me to continue my studies into going to a high school math teacher. So I reached out to Dr. DeHaas, who is the one in charge of the Education Department at Dallas College, and I called him and he was like:

"You're in luck. There's a recent partnership with SMU for future math teachers. You can get a scholarship to go to SMU to study to become a math teacher. It's a whole new program."

That's how I became aware of the program, which really saved my whole studies. During Dallas College, my first year, I took Calculus II and III, which helped me prepare for my mathematics classes that I will be taking here at SMU. And regarding the education, there was a teaching math class, I think it was TECA at Dallas College, I feel like those really helped me prepare for the knowledge I would use at my education class at SMU. I was honestly very scared to expect something.

So, I was like, "Maybe I'll get disappointed." I feel like it was more of a transition of me finding myself comfortable with the environment. I did develop a little bit of the impostor syndrome at the beginning, and I was like:

"What am I doing here? Everybody here is super smart."

But eventually I became aware that I had my own gifts along with my peers. Even though I'm certainly with peers that have amazing backgrounds.

I love the lab. It's my favorite thing. I believe it just gives me a sense of the classroom. I became very familiar with the characters and their personalities and their backgrounds, which helps me become a better instructor for them. I just get to apply whatever I learn in my education classes. Because math is a universal thing. So they can come from any country, and they will know what I'm talking about just by seeing. They're like, "Oh, I know this concept in my language." "I know this concept in my country." And also to teach them that if they're new in this country, they're going to feel lost. I felt lost at the beginning when I was a newcomer. But they will get used to it. They will have friends. And to never be afraid of expressing their own culture. To be always proud of where they came from.

Right now I'm rising to my senior year. I'm hoping to get into the SMU master's program, which just only takes a year. So I'm like, "I'm already going into my senior year, I might as well just take one more year for my master's." And after my master's, I hope to go back to my same school district.

Since I recognize how it is at a school district with very low resources and trying to work with that.

I talk to other students at Dallas College who are maybe interested in it, and they always seem to be amazed at my story because it would be like, "I never see myself coming to SMU." And I'm like, "Honestly? Me neither." But, you know, things just happen. Like, I really needed a resource to study and the Noyce Scholarship offered me the opportunity for me to continue my studies, which I'm very grateful because...It not only opened the door for me to continue my education, but it opened me a whole world of opportunities.