When Dario Alvarez walked into a room full of reporters and guests, he was surprised to see what was happening. He knew he was attending a scholarship event, but he didn’t know that he was going to be awarded a $25,000 scholarship.
The small ceremony was held on the downtown Phoenix campus Thursday morning to award Alvarez a sum that would cover the cost of his final year at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix.
When the surprise was revealed, the medical student was teary-eyed and he said he was very grateful for the scholarship.
University of Arizona officials cited Dario’s dedication to helping others as a reason for his selection.
“Looking at Dario’s background, he’s had such a tremendous role in the community in the past three years, and so we have already seen that he’s committed and I’m sure that helped him in being chosen by the committee,” said Allison Otu, senior director of marketing and communications for UA’s College of Medicine in Phoenix.
Alvarez has volunteered at the Wesley Community and Health Center and ASU’s Student Health Outreach for Wellness, and currently volunteers with the Phoenix Children’s Hospital for “Crews’n Healthmobile” and the UA College of Public Health’s Mobile Health Unit.
The Arizona Lottery partnered with the UA College of Medicine-Phoenix to establish the scholarship in order to give back to the community.
“We partnered with the college because we recognized the great work that’s going on here and it’s a great opportunity for us to recognize and honor a student for their contributions,” Gregory Edgar, executive director of the Arizona Lottery.
A dean of the college said the partnership aims to improve the campus.
“We are so grateful to the Arizona Lottery who have provided $39 million to provide the funding for these buildings and to the legislature who have just recently passed a bill to help expand our medical class to 120,” Dean of the College of Medicine-Phoenix Guy Reed said.
Alvarez was born in Cuba, but as a toddler he and his family emigrated to Venezuela and lived there for 11 years.
He and his family left Venezuela for Mexico and then moved to the United States because of a sociopolitical and economic crisis in Venezuela. He said he and his family were lucky to have moved from Venezuela when they did.
“We didn’t have any family here, and we were living in a motel room for almost a month until we found a family here in Arizona who took us in, and I’m very grateful for them,” Alvarez said.
He said moving to a country that primarily spoke a different language caused problems with his education.
“I went from sixth grade to eighth grade because of my age, all I did was cry at night because I didn’t understand the language and couldn’t do my homework or communicate with my teachers,” Alvarez said.
But he said he picked up the English language before high school, where he went from regular classes to taking AP and honors classes. Alvarez graduated from the University of Arizona with a bachelor’s degree in biology.
Alvarez was accompanied by some of his family, including his mother, Hortencia Reyes who
was also very emotional over her son’s scholarship.
“I’m very proud because as a mother, I tried really hard to change the life of my children since we left Cuba, and after all the difficulty we’ve had, he’s managed to overcome all these obstacles like racism, learning the language, and many other things,” Reyes said.
Reyes also mentioned that since high school, her son has always been a hard worker who was always studying instead of having fun.
Alvarez says he sees himself and his girlfriend helping people and communities who are in need, they both specialize in pediatrics. He said that his girlfriend wants to become a pediatric surgeon and he wants to become a pediatrician.
“It’s my dream, and it’s her dream, so we’ll see where we go after that,” Alvarez said.
Contact the reporter at milopez6@asu.edu.
