Honor Roll Scholarship Provides Hope for student

A Bright Spot in a Shadowy Economy

We know all too well the strains the economy has put on the average American and student in particular. But hope isn’t as far-fetched as it may seem. Scholarships, grants and other forms of economic assistance are a beacon of hope—especially for Cynthia Ortiz, the recipient of the Wells Fargo Scholarship for Honor Roll students at the University of Utah.

“I apply for scholarships every year and financial aid too. That’s the only reason I’ve been able to go to college because my family barely has enough money to pay the bills and buy food. It has definitely helped us a lot,” says Cynthia. “I usually apply for three or four scholarships every year and I honestly never think I’m going to get any scholarships. I don’t know what makes me so special to other people, but they obviously thought I was.”

Cynthia’s parents came here from Mexico. She’s a first generation college student along with her older brother who joined the military to help finance his education. Cynthia is optimistic she’ll be graduating next spring and hopes to be the first to get a master’s.

“I really want to go to graduate school and be the first of my generation to do that too,” says Cynthia. “I want to do counseling. I’m not sure which group I want to counsel yet. Right now I’m working with Hispanic teens struggling with drugs but they’re really fun to work with. I like counseling and helping people.”

Cynthia’s passion for helping others came from her mother whom she says “has been a really big influence; she’s the most important person in my life. She’s really great with helping people, volunteering, and talking to people. When I was little I saw that so I like volunteering and helping people.”

Cynthia is also involved in two separate undergraduate research programs at the Department of Educational Psychology with John Kircher and Jason Burrow-Sanchez. Kircher’s work involves new techniques for airport screening while Sanchez’s work is on Validating Interventions for Diverse Adolescents (VIDA) which Cynthia says is fun because the work is something she’d want to do with her life. She says she also learned from many graduate students who have helped and inspired her along the way.

CSBS boasts many outstanding professors and Cynthia had no shortage of praise for a few of them as well.

“I really liked my abnormal psychology class with Professor Donald S. Strassberg,” says Cynthia. He is a really good teacher, he’s really funny, and the class was fun because my first career choice was to go into abnormal psychology. I like Introduction to Sociology and Professor Bruce Rigby; he’s a really good teacher. It focuses on people in general whereas psychology focuses on the individual so it’s fun to see different theories contradict each other sometimes.”

Cynthia definitely has a heavy load but she nevertheless remains determined and un-deterred. She hopes to one day have an office of her own where she can practice what she loves doing, helping others.

By: Jacob M. Stout