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A Blueprint for A.I. ProductsAlumni Stories Impact That Moves Mountains
Meet Veronica Herrero, ’06
At One Million Degrees, Veronica Herrero takes big ideas and makes them possible, helping low-income community college students unlock their true potential.
- March 28, 2017
- Social Impact
Veronica Herrero: 00:04
We serve community college students who are highly motivated and who are low income. We empower them to become successful in school and work and in life.
Veronica Herrero: 00:17
Ultimately our mission is to help them break into the middle class. When I was looking at business schools, Booth, it was the obvious choice. There was nowhere else that I would be challenged. I was really challenged at Booth, and not only am I first-generation American, but I'm also a first-generation college graduate and the first and still the only person in my family to have earned her master's degree. Here, at One Million Degrees, when I first walked in, the CEO had a vision of growing tenfold—going from an organization that was 100 students to one that would serve thousands. And said, "We can do this."
Veronica Herrero: 00:53
So I came in again with this background, this great background on operationalizing ideas and we're doing it. We'll be serving a thousand students next year. So I don't think I would be able to do this if it weren't for the tools that I got at Booth. All of our scholars have purpose, as do I. This is my purpose. The work that I do here is fulfilling that and being able to see scholars with very similar background fulfill their potential and having that small role in doing that and helping them to meet their potential is more than I could ever ask for.
For Veronica Herrero, empowering low-income community college students through her work at One Million Degrees is both deeply fulfilling and personal.
Like many of her students, Veronica is a first-generation college graduate. She sees in them the same sense of determination that she learned from her parents, who built a business from nothing after immigrating to the United States from Mexico. Through Chicago Booth’s Full-Time MBA Program, Veronica gained the tools to create lasting social impact and navigate a career change into nonprofit management.
“When I entered Booth, I was definitely an ideas person. Now, I’m still an ideas person, but I know how to operationalize it,” Veronica says. This year, One Million Degrees will serve 1,000 students—a tenfold increase from when she started. “If we can help to elevate more people like me and have their children see them as models, this is exponential impact,” Veronica says. “That’s moving mountains.”
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