Lisa Lozano

Massachusetts Institute of Technology '17

In the fall of 2012, I started applying to numerous colleges alone. As a first-generation, low-income student with a single parent I learned everything independently, such as, the application and interview processes, FAFSA, the CSS Profile, etc. Eventually, my hard work in high school paid off and I was accepted to MIT. I completed my degree and my pre-med requirements in 2017 but decided to fulfill another passion: helping student access and succeed in college. I have served as a first-year college advisor for a cohort of nearly 80 students in the Greater Boston Area helping students apply to and get through college. As an advisor, I took a holistic approach, ensuring that students' academic, financial, professional, and personal needs were all considered. Then, I worked as a college readiness teacher for approximately 215 9th and 10th graders in San Antonio, TX and helped students practice their resume writing, drafting personal statements, and providing psychoeducational curricula (e.g., the importance of grit, coping during stressful times, finding support). At the moment, I am currently a full-time graduate student in a Clinical Psych program at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and was one of less than 50 master's students to be selected for a competitive assistantship that helps cover most of my education. I now utilize my experiences so that other students do not need to go through the same challenging experience of applying to colleges on their own.