Meet Horacio!

My name is Horacio and I am a current Post-Bac Pre-Med student at Columbia University. All that means is that I am taking MORE classes even though I already earned a college degree. Yes, I know, it sounds crazy! But I am doing so because I want to apply to medical school.

A little more about myself, I just turned 26 in June and have lived in New York City for four years. I have two very hardworking parents, a brother in college and a sister in high school. I was the first in my family to graduate college in the United States and am helping my siblings accomplish the same.  I grew up north of the city in a town called Ossining. But I was not born there. My family and I moved to Ossining from Ecuador when I was seven years old. At the time, I didn’t speak English and had no idea what moving to the United States meant.

I grew up loving to read and write and enjoyed school. My favorite subjects were history and science. Math on the other hand was hard for me. After high school, I left Ossining to go to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. It was the first time I was away from family. Leaving my parents was challenging. I grew up with a lot of responsibilities that were impossible to take care away from home. Who was going to translate for my parents? Who was going to help my siblings with their homework?

But I knew college was an opportunity that would also help my family in the long term. In college I learned to love math, take classes I didn’t know existed and even got to study in Spain for a quarter. And in 2014 I graduated and returned to New York to teach first grade in the Bronx. After three years teaching I realized that I wanted to apply to medical school. And here I am today.

Throughout my blog posts, I will be sharing with you tips and tricks I wish I had known before leaving home for school. I hope they help you along your way.