Vanessa Armendariz

When she was in high school, Vanessa Armendariz, A&S '11, read the autobiography of famed Johns Hopkins physician and role model Benjamin Carson and told herself, "I want to be him." Today, she's a junior in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences with the goal of returning to help heal the California hometown where she was raised. She says, "I knew that if I could get a college education, I could be that person to come back to our community and help make a change."

Admitted to Johns Hopkins and several California schools, Vanessa faced an excruciating choice: She knew her parents—neither of whom had finished high school—contemplated selling the family home in order to put her through college. She wondered: How could I put them in that situation? But Vanessa received news that she had been awarded two generous grants, the Charles D. Miller Scholarship and the Hugh L. Dryden Memorial Scholarship, which would completely cover her Johns Hopkins tuition.

Vanessa believes strongly that what you receive, you give. As a sophomore she managed to log 1,930 hours volunteering for a variety of on-campus admissions, student and Hispanic organizations, as well as tutoring Latino youth in East Baltimore. And every day, her dream grows ever closer to becoming a reality. Says Vanessa, "I call my family and tell them, 'Oh, guess what I did today?' and when I tell them the things I do, they just cry. Honestly, they cry because they never imagined that I would have this opportunity."