She took all advanced placement classes and
was a member of the National Honor Society. She was a member of the
color guard in the marching band and regularly volunteered at homeless
shelters and animal shelters. It wasn't until she began to apply for college that she finally
learned her immigration status. She wasn't like the other students with
whom she had grown up and shared classrooms and experiences. Evelyn is
undocumented, but it didn't stop her--she was going to pursue college. One of her teachers believed in her because she was such a bright
student and wrote her a letter of recommendation to go to college. She
was accepted into the University of Houston. She received multiple
awards while in college, including the Excellence in SI Leadership and
Mentoring Award, the American Society of Plant Biology Award for
Outstanding Research, and the Outstanding Biology Leadership Award. The summer after her freshman year, she was offered a great research
opportunity through the National Science Foundation. Because of DACA,
she was allowed to work legally in the United States, and she was able
to pursue this important research. That opportunity was in plant water
transport research in California. This is where Evelyn fell in love
with ecology and plants.
Keywords matched
immigration undocumented DACA