Ashanty Rangel, a 2021 graduate of Borrego Springs High School, and a first-year medical student at the Universidad Quetzalcoatl, in Mexico City, Mexico, along with her fellow students in the Nuevo International Program of the Faculty of Medicine, was recognized in a formal ceremony where she was awarded her first white medical coat.

The ceremony acknowledged the students' readiness for the University's international medical training program, which features educational rotations to other countries as part of their training to become doctors.

According to the Rector, Brenda Teresa Perez Gonzales, the ceremony was to honor students, like Rangel, who are the first group in the Division of Medical Sciences, to participate in the rotational training, doing stints between medical facilities in Houston, Texas, and the Mexico City Medical School.

Rangel's older brother, Vladimir, is also a student at the University, and will be traveling to Houston with Ashanty.

The Rector, together with the University's Medical Solutions Team, placed white coats on each student, explaining that, "The white coat is a symbol of the students' careers and their readiness to study in the United States."

"The color white is a symbol of life, standing for purity, prudence and goodness, and the white coat exerts an unconscious effect on patients, transmitting confidence, rigor, and security. This coat is also symbolic that these students have acquired the essential responsibility to wear the coat both as students and future great doctors," she added.

Rangel, a recipient of the Borrego Springs' Soroptimist's Ruth Hoosier Scholarship grant of $1,000 a year, for four years of study, has kept the local club advised of her progress.

"We are so proud of Ashanty. The club is also grateful that she stays in touch with us and shares her medical school adventures, including the proud moment of getting her first white coat," said Judy Stewart, president of the Borrego Springs' Soroptimist.

A Borrego graduate in which the community can take pride, and one that had the courage to go for her dream career, Ashanty shared three of her favorite quotes, hoping to inspire other students in Borrego High School to "dream big," and "live your dream."

"As women achieve power, the barriers will fall. As society sees what women can do, as women see what women can do, there will be more women out there doing things, and we'll all be better off for it." – Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

"The question isn't who's going to let me; it's who is going to stop me." – Ayn Rand.

"Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim." – Nora Ephron