You’ve been sitting on your bed all day with Blackboard open on your laptop, an open textbook, and a notebook with an empty page laying on the corner of your bed. You can’t figure out why you can’t focus on your assignment or where to even begin. Now, imagine being just a year away from graduating, an MCAT in a few months, and being the first in your family to become a doctor. 

Meet Melissa Esparza, a biology major at the University of Texas at El Paso. She’s studying for an MCAT, an entry exam for medical students, running her tutoring service, and is the first in her family to pursue a career in the medical field. 

“Well, I had been tutoring some friends on the side, and I had just been doing it to like, be nice and things. And I realized a lot of my friends had been like: ‘Dude, like you, actually can do this, like, ‘You helped me out so much on my exam’, or like ‘you did a study sheet for me and it worked out like you should do this as a job’,” said Esparza.  

Esparza can be found updating her followers on her studying day and posting motivational clips on Instagram (@melissaxesparza). While studying for her MCAT, she, through trial and error, found that the best studying tip she could give is to “figure out what works for you.”  
 

Watch her study tips here: 

By Brandy Ruiz