Angelica Jaramillo
Angelica Jaramillo’s father never finished college. Her mother never finished high school. Among her four siblings, the furthest anyone got was an associate’s degree. Nobody in the family had ever earned a bachelor’s, let alone a graduate degree. Her dad’s dream was to hear their last name called across a graduation stage.
This May, it happens.
Half the family wants a ticket. Her uncle has been asking for two years. “Uncle Russ, you have a whole baseball team,” she told him. Her dad has told everyone he knows: My daughter goes to USC.
The youngest of five, she grew up in a lower-income family in Montclair, California, before moving to Texas at 12 because it was more affordable. She put herself through her undergraduate degree in Radiologic Technology by bartending, doing clinicals, and selling tamales from behind the bar to cover textbooks. After graduating, she went to work at UT Southwestern Medical Center, working two hospital jobs through COVID to save enough to buy a house.
