My name is Luz Valenzuela and I am the daughter of immigrant parents, the youngest of 3, and the first to pursue a career in STEM. I grew up part of a low-income family in Albany Park Chicago, a neighborhood known for being Chicago’s most diverse neighborhood with a vibrant immigrant community and for having a river that cut through the heart of the neighborhood. My childhood consisted of living in a small 2-bedroom apartment where my days revolved around putting my all into school and participating in any extracurriculars available to me. From a young age, I knew that my parents' daily sacrifices were to ensure that my siblings and I would have a fighting chance to pursue a higher education that they never had. I spent most of my childhood following my dad around after school as he drove around the city knocking door to door trying to sell kitchen appliances to make ends meet; meanwhile, I would sit criss-crossed in the passenger seat listening to his favorite Spanish rock bands. We would end the day by picking up my mother from her daily 12+ hour shifts as a cashier where I would spend most of the car ride back home translating her morning orders from Spanish to English. Although I can look back and know my upbringing was full of love, support, and many sacrifices, some of my most memorable experiences revolved around my firsthand experiences with environmental racism. For most of my life, my home was located next to a river that gave me some of my best childhood memories and some of my worst. For years we experienced constant flooding that impacted our neighborhood, and despite all the pleas to receive assistance, our city left us abandoned. As a result, for years my parents and I would come home from our drives to my older siblings scooping out buckets of a mixture of sewage and river water that would seep up from our floors daily and would come home to our walls progressively starting to cave in because of the sinking ground. As I grew older I realized that this was not the average experience and ever since I grew passionate about sustainability and knew I wanted to make a difference to ensure no other family would have to go through what we did. Despite these adversities, it did not stop my parents from encouraging me and my siblings to aim high. Entering high school I explored many classes that led to different career paths but nothing spoke to me until I eventually took a general engineering elective in my junior year of high school. At the time my teacher, Mr. Vessalo, spoke about engineering with such love and was so intentional with the projects he had us do that I eventually became enthralled with the subject. I eventually landed on wanting to major in Mechanical Engineering—or as I see it, the mother of engineering—and planned on exploring a minor in the sustainability realm. I am now in my sophomore year at the University of Michigan where I am studying 'Mechanical Engineering' and 'Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering', and it is everything I hoped it would be and more. I have dedicated my time here as a student to making an impact regarding researching climate change as I promised myself all those years ago and simultaneously, dedicating time to programs that work with underrepresented and underprivileged students wishing to pursue a career in STEM. I knew I wanted to be intentional with my projects so I spent my second semester building a weather balloon and sensor package that traveled across the state, measuring atmospheric characteristics where I then took that data and presented an analysis comparing the current Michigan atmospheric trends to current climate change trends and offered a research proposal. Additionally, I have spent my time working for ‘M-STEM’, a pre-first-year transition program for students with high potential in STEM who come from underrepresented demographics whether it be socioeconomic status, first-generation status, race, and/or gender. I was fortunate enough to be a part of this program as an incoming freshman and this past year returned to work as a student life facilitator to guide incoming students and serve as a mentor while also fostering a strong peer community for them to support one another as they become acclimated to the University environment. While I am proud of what I have achieved so far I have unfortunately been met with additional financial burdens that have negatively impacted my academic journey. Being an out-of-state student has already posed many challenges for me and my family given the yearly tuition, however, I was also not granted University housing after my first year due to the university’s housing lottery system. As a result, I had to look for off-campus housing in one of the nation’s most expensive college towns. I have since been struggling to make ends meet without adding financial strain on my parents given that for the past few years, we have only been able to depend on my mother’s income as a cashier and my two siblings are also pursuing higher education. Because of this, I have had to focus a lot of my time these past two semesters working both on-campus and off-campus jobs to try and make ends meet for both my housing needs and my family’s needs. As a result, I have not had the ability to focus all my energy on my academics and they have since declined and I have had to give up many opportunities because of my lack of time from work and my financial capabilities. A scholarship like this would not only be life-changing for me and my family, but it would ensure that I can keep my promise to my younger self that I would continue to do intentional work and help tackle environmental issues at its core and continue to work with programs that benefit underrepresented students pursuing higher education in STEM fields.

Growing up as a daughter of Mexican immigrants, family, and community have always remained central values. In my collectivist culture, growing up in an environment that centered on collaboration and group well-being has taught me to value collaboration. In my experience within this collectivist culture, I learned three central values when it came to understanding the importance of family: Sharing responsibility, approaching problem-solving as a group, and prioritizing time for bonding. This family dynamic of mine has led me to embed this mindset into my academic endeavors. Today, I continue to find myself thriving in group settings, seeking to build community with others; whether it be on my school’s cross-country team to working on hands-on projects in my STEM classes. On the other hand, being completely immersed in this country’s independent culture has also led me to adopt specific ways of embracing myself as an individual, as well as my own independence as I navigate my educational journey. Looking back on this now, I have come to realize just how much of an impact both, my cultural upbringing, and my societal experience has had on my development as a leader, and as an aspiring Latina in STEM. When I think of my career aspirations, I think of working in a field that is constantly evolving with new and exciting challenges. I want to work in a field that allows me to address issues in our communities, but also one that drives me to pave the way for young Latinas and girls of color like me, which is why I wish to pursue Mechanical Engineering. In addition to that, growing up in a mixed-status, low-income family, I became aware of the fact that we were disproportionately impacted by unsustainable economic, social, and environmental systems which led me to be passionate about advocacy and sustainability. My goal is to pursue a field of study through a lens of equity and find solutions to issues that have directly impacted my community (whether it be building systems to help reduce air and water pollution or improving transportation systems in resource-deficient communities). That is why I plan to pursue a career in mechanical engineering to achieve these goals. I also hope to one day be able to return to an academic setting and teach the subjects that started me on my path and offer students the support needed in pursuing such an underrepresented career field. Coming from an immigrant family, financial stability and academic achievement are the two most important factors in our lives. However, one of the biggest challenges I came across was the disruption to these factors throughout the pandemic. Since my parents are undocumented immigrants, they found themselves without a steady income. As a cashier, my mom’s hours were cut drastically; my dad, a self-employed salesman, had no clients for months. Knowing that neither would receive a stimulus check, our financial need grew so dire that we relied on mutual aid funds to pay the bills. My family’s financial struggles, along with the pressure to return to a school with 4,000 students, and only a face mask to shield me took a drastic toll on my mental health. The pandemic’s effects went beyond that of physical COVID-19 symptoms; I was diagnosed with anxiety and I lost concentration transitioning back to school. It took time for me to find my footing again, I began to struggle in classes, specifically my STEM classes, and it put me in a position where I began to question my abilities and worthiness of being in such advanced classes. It was during this time that I failed my first tests in Calculus, I was struggling to understand the concepts in Physics, and I was having difficulty finding my place in these spaces. However, my biggest pride is knowing that despite all of this, I stuck through with the classes despite being presented with the option to switch out. It was during this time that I held tight to my family values and persevered with the challenges that I was experiencing. This decision is perhaps the proudest one I have ever made. It symbolized not only my commitment to pursue a career in STEM but also my resiliency and adaptability in times of failure. My passion for math and now engineering has only gotten stronger. As I look towards the future, I am excited to continue seeking opportunities that will challenge me, and now use what I have learned to overcome them and create my path as a Latina in STEM.