“I want all of it to be worth it.”

“My mom and dad moved from Mexico to the U.S. to have a better life. A year after they arrived, my mom got pregnant with me. Because I was the first grandchild, my dad wanted his family and my mom’s family to watch me be born. So, they flew back to Mexico when my mom was seven months pregnant. But they knew they were going to come back to the U.S. They wanted me to get an education – something they did not really get a chance to receive.

My parents didn’t have the opportunity to graduate from high school. They were close, but they had to work to help their parents. That’s one of the reasons why they didn’t want me to have a job. I’d try to get one, but they wouldn’t let me, so I could just focus on school. I was able to enroll at JSU because I qualified for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and my parents have been paying for my education.

I’m about to graduate, and they are very proud of me. They joke and say, ‘When you become a doctor, you’ll be taking care of us.’ But I just want to be useful to them and try to give back a bit of what they’ve given me. I want all of it to be worth it.”

– Izury, graduating senior biology/pre-med major from Morton, Miss. by way of Mexico