More ahead for scholars as UTRGV sees first cohort of Luminary grads

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This weekend marks the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new one for Rio Grande Valley students Victoria Velazquez and Muhammad Zubeir Noorani.

As the first cohort of University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Luminary scholars were set to take the stage this weekend, Velazquez and Noorani — not being done with their education yet — have plans to continue their journey at the UTRGV School of Medicine.

Both students are a part of the 2022 cohort of Luminary scholars.

The UTRGV Luminary Scholarship program eliminates financial burden to students by paying for education-related expenses associated with an undergraduate degree and a professional degree such as graduate or medical school. The scholarship is rare since it covers professional education years.

Several requirements are needed to be Luminary scholars, one of them is that students must pledge to work in the Valley for each year that their education was funded.

That isn’t a problem for Velazquez, who has already made up her mind a long time ago that she plans to stay in the Valley and will be looking to help her community.

She said with the financial burden paid for by the program, she was able to focus on school and even garner valuable shadowing and volunteering experience along her journey.

Velazquez is interested in women’s health, such as OB-GYN work or family medicine, after spending time in clinics and seeing the impact she could have on patients’ lives and their families.

Noorani said he is interested in cardiology but thinks it’s important to have an open mind and explore other options while going through med school.

Velazquez described the day she got accepted into the program as an intense and emotional day. For weeks leading up to her acceptance, she would religiously check her financial aid account, which she admits was not the healthiest thing to do.

“I needed to know and I actually found out before they sent the official mail to us because I was constantly checking,” she said. “I was in one of my classes, and I was like, ‘You know, what are the odds?’ So I checked, I refreshed, and sure enough, I saw, like this crazy amount. And then sure enough, like a few moments later, I got the email, and I was ecstatic. All of my administration was there. We all kind of celebrated together. They gave me hugs, and there was tears, and then I immediately got permission to FaceTime my parents.”

Noorani had a different experience learning about his acceptance into the program. Calling his parents since they were out of the country at the time, he said it was expected of him to reach this goal.

“My parents are the type to like, OK, if things go your way, good. If things don’t go your way, you have to work to get them to go your way eventually,” Noorani said. ”This is just a stepping stone, but it’s a very, very big stepping stone.”

Admitting he doesn’t process his emotions right away, he said it took until signing day for it to fully sink in.

“When we had the signing day, it was a very big day for me,” Noorani said. “Getting dressed up, going to the signing. It was official, so it felt like a very big moment. And then, I don’t know why, but I suddenly felt super alone. Because I went with my friends, and then I realized I’m the only one that I know that has a scholarship. Everyone’s going to be new to me. Everyone’s going to be strange. But the moment that we started at the dorms, everyone, everyone got super close, super fast.”

Velazquez agreed and said she loved her time as a Luminary scholar and has made lasting friendships through the program. “You’re with like-minded individuals who are in a very similar position that you are,” she said. “So you get to kind of bond over … it’s like to go through a lab together, to go through difficult classes together. So you kind of have that support system, which I think is very important, because, of course, you can get it from family, but it’s different when someone actually knows what you’re going through.”

While still staying at UTRGV, Velazquez called the end of her undergraduate years as bittersweet.

“The learning is going to continue here at the UTRGV School of Medicine and I’m very excited for learning stuff that I’m more passionate about,” she said. “I’m very passionate about (Biology) but now it’s with the sole focus on humans … I think that’s so wonderful and knowing that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, even though it’s a very long tunnel for us, because it’s a lot of years of school … the bigger goal is very inspiring.”

Noorani also sees this as a continuation and paving the road to his goals.

“I spent this last semester of undergrad focusing on setting myself up for medical school, forming connections and getting back in touch with some of my professors about anything that potentially in med school, I can go back to them,” he said. “Until I graduate med school and I have residency to show for it, then that will be an accomplishment. And then for when I become an attending physician, that will be another big accomplishment. It’s not the end of something that’s the accomplishment, but the beginning of something new.”

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