CCF scholarship recipient Norma Sanchez with her mother at the Fraser Scholarship dinner in November 2009. (Photo courtesy of Norma Sanchez)

Scholarships Fuel her Dreams of Becoming a Doctor

January 2010

Norma Sanchez vividly recalls the frustration at age 9 of waiting six hours in the emergency room for her younger brother to be treated for a high fever. That experience was one of many that influenced her decision to become a doctor. As the only English speaker in her family, Sanchez grew up helping her parents navigate the health care and educational systems by scheduling medical appointments and meetings involving her younger brother Oscar’s special education.

Today, at age 29, she is in her second year of medical school at UCLA and has her sights set on becoming a general practitioner. Her career path recently got a boost when she was awarded a scholarship from the Robert C. Fraser Fund, the largest restricted scholarship fund at CCF. It focuses on graduate students pursuing a medical career at UCLA and USC, and also provides grants to doctors who work in underserved communities to help them repay their educational loans.

Sanchez’s $15,000 scholarship, renewable for three years, couldn't come at a better time. “It really takes the pressure off and I don’t have to stress out about finances,” said Sanchez, who in high school won a Warren Christopher scholarship, another CCF fund, which was started by O’Melveny & Myers law firm in honor of the former Secretary of State and invests in talented LAUSD students. “It will especially help with test prep books, textbooks and other materials, and I won’t have to take out more loans."

The older of two children of Mexican immigrants who worked as a press operator assistant at a printing company and as a house cleaner, Sanchez’s single-minded determination to succeed propelled her along a path that shaped her desire to work in the community as a physician. An alumnus of Alexander Hamilton High School in Culver City, Sanchez graduated from UC Berkeley with a 3.71 grade point average as a double major in molecular biology and Spanish. While there, she shadowed a physician who provided prenatal care and social support to teen mothers, and volunteered in the emergency room of the Alameda County Medical Center. She also mentored mentally disabled high school students and interned at Oakland’s Children’s Hospital.

After graduation, Sanchez returned home to L.A., working full time for four years with the UCLA Health Services Research Center while getting her master’s in public health.

Both scholarships not only were affirmations of her hard work but also served as catalysts toward her eventual goal of working at a community clinic. “To get recognized is amazing, especially growing up in a community where you don’t see a lot of rewards for the hard work,” said Sanchez,
who grew up in South L.A. “Scholarships are one of those awards that change your life, change the trajectory. They helped me believe that I could do all the things it takes to carry out my dreams.

“Now I look back at all the challenges and obstacles and people I went to high school with who didn't graduate and now have children. That could easily have been me. But that scholarship kept me looking ahead.”