CA Teen Of Indigenous Mexican Descent Earns Full Ride To Harvard

MECCA, CA — For Elizabeth Esteban, getting into Harvard was something of a moonshot. Now, she’s going to the university on a full ride scholarship.

The teenager got the good news earlier this month when she was accepted into the university. The $81,000 scholarship will cover her tuition and housing, according to The Desert Sun.

It was a welcome surprise for Esteban, who didn’t think she’d ever reach this point or that the Ivy League school would go for someone like her, she told the paper.

The daughter of farmworkers, Esteban lives in an unincorporated part of the Coachella Valley and has ties to the Purépecha, an Indigenous tribe in the Michoacán region of Mexico.

The average Harvard acceptance rate is about 5 percent, and students of Latino or Hispanic heritage make up less than 13 percent of the student body, according to the school’s admissions office.

But, Esteban told The Desert Sun she didn’t want to go through life regretting not applying to Harvard and decided to take a chance.

“You never see a person from an underserved community go to a prestigious college like that. So, in the back of my brain, I was all, 'I'm probably not going to make it,' but it was worth it to try,” Esteban said.

Things were dicey at first during the application process. Esteban had been plagued with internet issues while doing remote learning for her final year at Desert Mirage High School, according to NBC Palm Springs.

Those issues cropped up again during her interview with Harvard, when her internet gave out.

But despite the tech setback, she'll join the university later this year as part of the class of 2025. Esteban plans to study government, with the intent of becoming an immigration lawyer and someday running for Congress, she told The Desert Sun.

Her mother, Cecilia Esteban, couldn’t be prouder of her daughter’s accomplishment.

“Waking up early every morning and working hard in the fields is worth it,” she told NBC. “Now it’s even more worth it, because my daughter has accomplished what she has dreamt about.”

Although the scholarship covers tuition and housing, it’s up to Esteban to pay for the rest of her living expenses such as books, food and the move to Cambridge, Massachusetts. To that end, she started a GoFundMe campaign that has surpassed her initial $20,000 goal.

“I promise all of you that I will never give up, and I will never forget where I come from,” she said on her campaign page. “I'll always keep my Mexican and Indigenous blood close to my heart.”