There’s a good chance that if you tell Luz Reyes-Martín no, she’ll prove you wrong.
Reyes-Martín, who was born in Mexico, moved with her family to the city of Downey in Los Angeles with her family at the age of 3. By the time she was in high school, she sought every AP honors class she could take, though her high school counselor discouraged her, telling her she wouldn’t be successful despite her high grades. Reyes-Martín nonetheless persisted on, earning high grades.
This continued throughout high school, and although Reyes-Martín dreamed of going to a four-year university, her counselor pushed her not to apply, refusing to write a letter of recommendation for her Stanford application because she thought it was a waste of time. But Reyes-Martín was accepted into Stanford — and that’s exactly where she went. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in political science and Chicano/a studies.