Valeria Escobar has taken the next big step in pursuing a life-long dream of career in journalism. The Uplift Summit International Preparatory senior earned admission and a full-ride scholarship to Columbia University in New York City. Escobar will announce her decision to attend along with hundreds of Uplift seniors at College Signing Day on April 24.
“I was very certain that if I got accepted this would be the school for me because of my academic interest and location in New York City,” she said.
Escobar applied early decision to the Ivy League University.
Her interest in journalism began at an early age and continued to develop as her teachers encouraged her to pursue her passion. Escobar applied to six other universities but found Colombia as the most challenging application process to the School of Journalism.
“For me I would walk into my English, Spanish or biology class, and I had teachers that encouraged us to embrace or background in our learning and encouraged us to be able to use our different facets that make us, us,” Escobar said. “[It was] nice because I learned to love a lot of things especially the writing portion of journalism which was encouraged by my English and Spanish teachers who showed me that I can do this for a living, and I was never told that before.”
Her family is excited for her to have earned this opportunity as a first-generation college student and to have the worries of college costs off their shoulders. Escobar has a specific study of interest in mind and hopes to pursue journalism to work on way to reform sexual education. She hopes to also study sexuality and gender variances as she learns new ways to communicate and understand others in their identity.
Escobar has been putting in long hours and working hard towards her education and finding her passion. She has leaned on her Road To College Counselors and teachers for support during her high school education.
“I’m grateful to be able to attend a school like Uplift Summit,” she said. “Anywhere that I would go to college I would be able to be successful because of all the tools that my teachers, administrators and counselors gave to me, and the knowledge they were able to translate into a language I was able to understand,” said Escobar.
Uplift Voices 