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Scholarship recipient plans to get teaching license and help others get a good education

Higher education has always been important to Esmeralda Castillo-Cobian, an ethnic studies major at the University of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder. But coming from a low-income family, she sometimes felt that college was out of reach.

Esmeralda Castillo-Cobian takes a moment at the Garden of the Gods near ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Springs. At the top of the page, she poses at an event sponsored by Eye Resist featuring the activist and physicist Vandana Shiva. Photos courtesy of Esmeralda Castillo-Cobian.

"My mom calls me every night to reassure me that I belong here, even though sometimes I can’t see that myself,” Castillo-Cobian said. “Just the other night, she was telling me that she is really proud of me and that she knows how hard I have worked to get here.”

Castillo-Cobian said while her parents made her education a priority, receiving the 2017 Eagan Family Scholarship made the choice to attend ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder all the easier.

The Eagan Family Endowed Scholarship provides funding to students enrolled in the Miramontes Arts and Sciences Program, which supports traditionally underrepresented and first-generation ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ students as they transition from high school to college, and from college to post-graduate life. Eagan Family Scholarship recipients must have a major in the College of Arts and Sciences, be enrolled full-time, and demonstrate both academic merit and a financial need.

“(Having enough) money is always at the back of my mind, but a scholarship helps take away some of the worry about paying for tuition, food or rent,” she said.

“Receiving a scholarship makes me feel like I do have a right to this experience at ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ, that I am just as deserving, that I do belong. Whether you are poor or brown, giving back to my campus community gives me an opportunity to be seen.”

Born in Mexico, Castillo-Cobian has lived most of her life in ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ along with her two older brothers (one of whom is also a student at ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder studying math). But, while scholarships helped reduce the financial barriers, cultural divides still tug at her.

“Even though I have light-skin privilege, I was still ‘the other.’ I had come from a place where I saw mostly brown people, and now on campus and in my classes, I see mostly white people. The cultural difference was huge,” she said.  

At ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder, Castillo-Cobian is a member of UMAS y MEChA, a student organization for the Chicanx and Latinx communities where she has led outreach events, and Eye Resist, a student organization through ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ’s Department of Ethnic Studies that examines race relations, gender issues and current events such as war. In addition, she has helped develop a summer program housed within ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Engage (a center for community-based learning) for Latino and Chicano high school students. The program is co-sponsored with UMAS and the ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ School of Education.  

“My native language is Spanish, but I rarely get an opportunity to use it in my classes. Student organizations like UMAS y MEChA give me a chance to connect with people like me in social settings on campus,” she said.

Castillo-Cobian plans get her teaching license so she can teach middle and high school students in communities like the one she grew up in: Aurora, ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ.

“In a way, my community got me (here), and I want to give back and show students that if you are given an opportunity to be in a place like ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ that you can find your community and know that you belong.”