Araceli Velasquez graduated from Stanford in 1999 with a BA in biological sciences and a minor in Spanish. In this oral history, she briefly describes her family history and how being admitted to a GATE school in the third grade impacted the rest of her life. Velasquez mentions her participation in numerous student organizations like Ballet Folklórico, Mariachi Cardenal, CHE (Chicanos in Health Education), SSCLES (Stanford Society of Chicano and Latino Engineers and Scientists), and Barrio Assistance. As a premed student, she also explains how she fought to establish a Spanish class for those in her field. Velasquez provides some insight into Stanford’s Latinx community at the time and what it meant to her and her family to earn a college degree. She concludes by talking about what drove her to earn an MBA at Fresno State and her experience as a young single mom.