Paola Betancur

Latinx Heritage month is for me a time to appreciate values of dedication, hard work and perseverance, values I learned from my parents and were reinforced through my husband (also a Latinx). This is a time to celebrate and display even more our welcoming and warm Latin personality and to be proud of who we are. It is also a time to reflect, acknowledge and learn from the injustice and misjudgment sometimes we immigrants and other groups are exposed to in this country. A time to remind our future generations to be considerate and to be respectful of each other’s different cultures, beliefs and race.

I am a first-generation immigrant from Colombia, very proud to be first-generation to go to college and the only one to obtain a Doctorate degree in my family. I am the daughter of hard-working parents, who taught me since I was little that dedication was the key to success. As a result, I am a hardworking, very curious scientist and loving mother that thrives every day to be an example of tenacity and perseverance to my two daughters and to young female students embarking on a biomedical career. My goals and passions in life are: Improving the treatment of cancer disease through my research studies at UCSF (Betancur Lab); Providing opportunities to communities in disadvantage for obtaining higher education degrees in the biomedical field through UCSF PROPEL, a program I co-founded during the pandemic; Spending time with my family –salsa dancing with my husband, running and biking with the children–. Oh I also love taking long afternoon naps (but I have no time for such luxury since my teenage years).

Being Latinx means to me that I am part of a very diverse cultural group, but regardless of the country of origin, we have in common a beautiful language, we are resilient, passionate, and warm people, we are positive and have a good sense of humor (well, at least I like to think I do). 

My culture has taught me to be caring for others and that to work towards improving our society, we need to start thinking we are all part of a big family, accept each other, with virtues and defects.