SUCCESS STORIES –
Our Graduates
According to the Association of Public & Land Grant Universities, those with a Bachelor’s Degree are half as likely to be unemployed as their peers who hold only high school degrees and they make $1 million in additional earnings on average over a lifetime.
At ¡Adelante Latina! we instill in our students, all of whom will be the first in their families to attend college, the understanding of the power of achieving a college degree and the potential of its impact on their earning power, on their families and community. We help them achieve this goal through hard work and lots of encouragement and individual guidance.
The Class of 2023 graduates are attending the following colleges and universities: Johns Hopkins University (2), Towson University (3), University of Maryland-College Park, Notre Dame of Maryland University, UMBC (2), The Culinary Institute of America, the University of Baltimore, Loyola University and Morgan State University.
The Class of 2024 will be attending: Bowdoin College, Drexel University, The American University, University of Maryland-College Park, Towson University (3), St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Community College of Baltimore County (2).
Class of 2024
Amy’s Story
Amy Villanueva Vasquez is a graduate of Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, Amy was active with Latino student groups, helped organize the very first school-wide event celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month in 2024 and participated in Jr. ROTC holding several leadership roles. She is committed to her church community where she served as a youth leader. In summer of 2023, Amy participated in an internship at Centro SOL, Johns Hopkins’ outreach arm in the Latino community, where she conducted research on health issues impacting the Baltimore Latino community. This experience reinforced her passion for ensuring that every community has access to health care.
Amy was selected for the competitive Liberty Scholars Program at Drexel University which provides her with a full, four-year scholarship. She wants to pursue a degree in public health.
“With the guidance and support of ¡Adelante Latina!, I gained valuable insight into navigating the college application process, empowering me to confidently pursue higher education and continue my own path towards success as a first-gen student.”
Class of 2023
(Jacqueline, right, pictured with Culinary Institute of America graduate, Baltimore restaurateur and James Beard Foundation finalist for Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic, Cindy Wolf.)
Jacqueline’s Story
Jacqueline Roldan entered our program in her junior year with an infectious smile and starry-eyed optimism of fulfilling her dream of becoming a chef and owning a restaurant of her own one day, serving food inspired by her Mexican heritage.
Raised by a single mother due to her father’s deportation when she was only 8 years old, Jacqueline’s determination is inspired by her mother’s desire to provide a better life for her children. Jacqueline graduated from Mergenthaler Vocational Technical High School (MerVo) as the valedictorian of her class and received multiple scholarships, including a national scholarship from Goya Foods, which enabled her to attend her dream school, the prestigious Culinary Institute of America.
“At ¡Adelante Latina!, I learned that through hard work, GRIT and determination, anything is possible.“
Class of 2020
Emily’s Story
Emily, a graduate of Baltimore City College High School, is a biology major in the Baltimore Scholars Program at Johns Hopkins University which provides her with a four-year full scholarship program.
“Without the help of ¡Adelante Latina!, there is no way that I would have been accepted to Johns Hopkins University. I am so grateful to have been given so much guidance along the way. “
Class of 2019
Nayely’s Story
Nayely Rivera Lavaire is the daughter of a single immigrant mother who made countless sacrifices to come to the United States, Nayely dreamed big and had a clear vision of what she wanted her success story to be.
She credits ¡Adelante Latina! to exposing her to many opportunities and encouraging her to take advantage of them. With the help of ¡Adelante Latina! she was selected to become a QuestBridge Scholar, a nationally competitive program through which she earned a four-year scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania.
After graduating with a degree in psychology, ¡Adelante Latina! referred her to a job as a research assistant for a study at the University of Maryland School of Social Work, focusing on attachment between Latina mothers and their babies—a role perfectly aligned with her interests and skills. She was touched that ¡Adelante Latina! continued to look out for her despite having graduated four years prior.
Nayely is now fulfilling her dream while realizing her academic and professional goals and making an impact in the Baltimore Latino community.
Shirley’s Story
Told by her middle school math teacher that she was doing a really good job with the material, Shirley was selected to take advanced math lessons to prepare her for high school. She entered Project Lead the Way academic track at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute where she focused on STEM courses that sparked her interest in engineering. Shirley continued to pursue her passion for engineering at the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland where she majored in mechanical engineering.
She is currently a Project Engineer at Whiting-Turner, responsible for overseeing a project from beginning to end, handling technical aspects, budgets, invoices, and engineering. Her first project is to design an outdoor environmental space at the National Aquarium in Baltimore.