AHSIE 2022 Scholarship Recipients

Hillary Calderon

Associate Degree in Biology

Cypress College

Hillary Calderon is a sophomore at Cypress College receiving a degree in biology. She is seeking to transfer to the University of California Irvine. After receiving her bachelor's degree, she seeks to matriculate to the UCI School of Medicine. In her free time, Hillary enjoys sewing, reading, and falling down google rabbit holes. Her favorite genres to read are novels and short stories.

Jessica Mora

Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology

UC Santa Barbara

Jessica Mora (she/her/ella) is a first-generation Latina student. She is currently a fourth-year sociology major pursuing a bachelor’s degree at UC Santa Barbara. Jessica, who comes from a mixed-status migrant family, found many of her academic interests revolved around immigrant and Latinx issues. During her undergraduate studies, she chose to pursue sociology in order to emphasize social activism, educational empowerment, and migration. She is writing a senior honors thesis on health inequities among undocumented migrant populations.

She believes that education empowers first-generation students profoundly. As a peer mentor for UCSB's Educational Opportunity Program, she mentors first-generation and low- income students on academic, financial, and personal matters. It is her goal to continue empowering Latinx youth through advocacy and counseling. She wishes to thank her Mami, Papi, and sister for their endless support throughout her journey and for continually reinforcing the importance of education.

Estefania Perez-Luna

MD in Internal and Cardiology

University of Illinois

Estefania Perez-Luna is an emerging, bilingual health professional with experience in working with underserved, Spanish-speaking communities. She is currently a first-year medical student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Medicine. Coming from an undocumented community, early on she witnessed her family’s struggle to access quality care. Ultimately, this led her to a career in medicine. Throughout her college career, she worked on health disparity research projects, including esophageal cancer, and tobacco disparities among LGBT youth. After graduating from Benedictine University, she pursued non-profit work as an AmeriCorps VISTA at Public Allies Chicago. There she worked with various community organizations and agencies on city-wide initiatives for inner-city youth that are out of school and out of work. Estefania is currently a peer mentor with the I Am Abel Foundation, helping to prepare pre-med students for medical school interviewing. As a first-generation Latina, she is interested in advocacy and mentorship of undocumented students and underrepresented minorities in medicine. She has interests in general Internal Medicine and hopes to serve marginalized communities with a social justice approach. Through the Urban Medicine Program at UIC, she hopes to expand her leadership skills and learn to be a stronger advocate at the public health and policy level. Her current project with the Urban Medicine Project focuses on bringing health classes for patients at Community Health, the largest free community clinic serving uninsured patients in the nation. Her goal will be to establish a Promotores de Salud program to train local community residents to return to their communities and teach about common health issues in the Latinx community.