2022–2023 NHLCC Scholar: Melissa Rodriguez Mendoza
Melissa Rodriguez Mendoza
Universidad Autonoma De Guadalajara
Jalisco, Mexico
3rd Year Medical Student
Melissa Rodriguez Mendoza is a Chicago native that grew up in Brighton Park. She attended Roosevelt University and became the first person in her family to graduate from college. Melissa is currently a third-year medical student at Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara (UAG) and will be the first doctora of her family. Her experiences with her family and community are what led her to pursue medicine. She hopes to use these experiences to help eradicate barriers to healthcare in the Latino community. Prior to medical school, Melissa worked as medical assistant in both inpatient and outpatient settings. While working in primary care, she was often needed to translate for the Spanish-speaking patients. She realized that these patients didn’t just need translation, they needed help managing their diabetes and other chronic medical conditions. Staying true to her commitment of providing linguistically and culturally competent healthcare, Melissa became a certified diabetic educator to better serve those patients. When she’s not in class or studying, Melissa enjoys cooking with her family and discovering new coffeeshops with Canela, her rescue chihuahua. She resorts to sewing and crocheting when she needs to unwind. Melissa brought her creativity to medical school and has served as the social media coordinator and graphic designer for the internal medicine interest group at UAG. Melissa is excited to be a NHLCC Scholar and is honored to represent the Latino community. She is looking forward to working with her mentor and the rest of the NHLCC team to further improve her community’s cardiovascular health.