{"id":479862,"date":"2021-05-06T08:25:05","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T12:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=479862"},"modified":"2021-05-19T13:08:19","modified_gmt":"2021-05-19T17:08:19","slug":"take-five-scholar-cuba-native-camila-lage-chavez-479862","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/take-five-scholar-cuba-native-camila-lage-chavez-479862\/","title":{"rendered":"Long road to University was worth it for Take Five scholar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cuban native Camila Lage Chavez says Rochester\u2019s hands-on approach and diversity have prepared her well for the future.<\/h2>\n

Choosing the University of Rochester<\/a> was the easy part for Camila Lage Chavez \u201921 (T5). Getting to the River Campus tested her resiliency.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was visiting my father in Ecuador (in 2015), and the US embassy gave me a list of 25 American colleges,\u201d the Havana, Cuba, native says. \u201cI started looking up what they offered students, and if they had things I was looking for in a college. My list got smaller and smaller, and when I watched a virtual tour<\/a> of UR, I knew I wanted to go there.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n\"2021<\/a><\/p>\n

Celebrate the Class of 2021!<\/h2>\n

Visit the Class of 2021 site<\/a> for details about this year\u2019s Commencement ceremonies and for a downloadable toolkit of materials to share your support on social media.\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

But there were challenges. Lage Chavez didn\u2019t have internet access in Cuba, so she paid $20 for a 24-hour plan spread over a month. She didn\u2019t have a credit card to pay for her application, so Rochester delayed her fee. And snail mail was so slow she didn\u2019t find out she had been accepted until two months later.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was challenging,\u201d she says, \u201cbut UR helped me over every hurdle.\u201d<\/p>\n

One hurdle remained when she landed in America. The plane ticket her dad reserved for her was for Rochester, Minnesota. She had to make a quick change at O\u2019Hare International Airport in Chicago before arriving in New York.<\/p>\n

Lage Chavez is believed to be the first Rochester undergraduate to come directly from Cuba. She majored in molecular genetics and is nearing the end of a Take Five Scholars Program<\/a> called \u201cGlobalization through the Lens of Race, Discrimination, and Identity\u201d that examines the Latino experience in America. \u201cI wanted to take a gap year between college and medical school, and Take Five seemed like a really good opportunity,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

While an undergraduate, she was involved in the Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT)<\/a> for four years and was a teaching assistant for chemistry and biology classes. <\/p>\n

Lage Chavez was in Rochester when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the University to move all classes to remove learning. She found an apartment near campus and completed the semester like all University students\u2014remotely. She hasn\u2019t seen her family since December 2019. \u201cIt\u2019s been challenging,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve taken all of my classes off campus this year. It\u2019s sad compared to a \u2018normal\u2019 year, but I think the school has done a great job to make it as close to that as it can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rochester was the first school she applied to, and it has lived up to her expectations. \u201cIt may be smaller than some schools, but it has the resources of a big school,\u201d she says. \u201cI was able to connect with my professors and build relationships, which led to research positions in labs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lage Chavez is applying to medical schools and hopes to become a doctor serving minority populations in the United States. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe University of Rochester has prepared me for my future,\u201d she says. \u201cBeing able to go to class and then apply what you’ve just learned in a laboratory setting\u2014I didn\u2019t think I could do that. And the diversity of the students will help me when I\u2019m treating patients that are different than me. It\u2019s the friendships, the connections, and the knowledge I\u2019ll most remember.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cuban native Camila Lage Chavez says Rochester\u2019s hands-on approach and diversity have prepared her well for the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":672,"featured_media":479892,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[26572,33362,4536,37592,18722,14,16072,32172],"class_list":["post-479862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community","tag-arts-sciences-and-engineering","tag-class-of-2021","tag-commencement","tag-covid-19","tag-department-of-biology","tag-events","tag-school-of-arts-and-sciences","tag-take-five-scholars-program"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTake Five scholar Cuban native takes long road to University<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Cuban native and Take Five scholar says the University of Rochester\u2019s hands-on approach and diversity have prepared her 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