LISTEN 2023 Scholarship Recipient Spotlight: Kimberly Dayana Cux Tizol

When Kimberly Dayana Cux Tizol shared her personal story at LISTEN 2023, she was a junior at Manual Arts High School. Today, she is a first-year student at UC Merced, pursuing a Sociology degree with an emphasis in Psychology.

This is her story of how receiving the My Story Matters LISTEN Scholarship impacted her:

“When I first heard about the PLUS ME scholarship it was from one of my advisors that I was really close to. She came up to me and asked if I had heard of PLUS ME, told me they were giving out scholarships for students, and said I was a great candidate for the scholarship. ‘It’s a great thing for you to take advantage of.’ she said.

That’s when I decided to start the process of writing the essay. It was during my junior year. I wasn’t really into writing and I had to find out how to start the essay and how to make it perfect. I asked my advisor for advice, ‘Am I doing good? Should I add something else?’ My older sister was also there and I told her I was going to talk about myself. She grew up with me, and I grew up with her. She knew my story and what happened in our past. I asked her, “What story should I add?” And “Is this ok?”, So I got lots of support from my family and school advisors. 

When I heard that I was selected, I was really happy. Then, I was really scared. I had to prepare to share my story with an audience! I thought to myself, ‘I don’t know how to go out there and do that. I don’t know if I’m going to do well or struggle with words or something.’ I met with Bethanee and she asked me questions about my story, helped me organize it and then it became really exciting for me. I really felt the support from Bethanee and the PLUS ME team. I also remember taking the picture for the scholarship, being asked to select a day and feeling really special because they came to my school. Everyone was looking at me and was like ‘Why are they taking pictures of her?’ My friends were proud of me. They were like, ‘Kim, I’m really proud of you! You got the scholarship and now they’re taking pictures of you!’ I remember taking a suit to school and they said, “You look so good in your suit!” And that’s when I felt the confidence of being out there, trying something that I hadn’t done before. 

When I first told my mom my story, she was really surprised. My family reacted in a way I never thought they would. It was an accomplishment for me–and it was a $1,000 scholarship. During my junior year my family was going through hard economic circumstances and winning the scholarship was a way to help out my mom and my family. I remember reading the story to practice—it was written in English but I translated it into Spanish—and sharing it with her about the topics that I went through. My sister even brought up a microphone and speaker and told me to read out loud and imagine I was reading in public and they were recording me. Seeing my family’s reaction while I was reading the story, my mom was crying, my family was there, and it was really special to me. I loved my mom’s reaction, she was very happy. 

On the day, I was nervous going up and talking about my story since that was going to be my first time. But my family was there to support me. I’m really happy that it also helped me connect with others. After I spoke, someone came up to me and shared that they were also undocumented and other people shared even more scholarship opportunities. I also got motivation for my future goals, motivated me to continue my education and to keep studying and to take advantage of opportunities in life. It felt like there was an open door that allowed me to explore new things. I felt inspired to get more connected to society and the community and that’s why I landed as a psychology/sociology major. I decided to get into that field to learn more about it. 

Now, as a college student I look back on my accomplishments back then and I say, well thanks to God I’m here now and I’m taking advantage of these things and I also felt like I am here in college feeling confident to explore, get out there, ask questions, look for programs and scholarship opportunities. Taking advantage of these opportunities helped me open up in ways I hadn’t before.”

Reserve your seat for LISTEN 2025 to honor the stories of this year’s My Story Matters LISTEN Scholarship recipients!