This story is part of a series highlighting the university’s outstanding graduates crossing the stage on May 16.
When Ana Vallejo began applying to college, she knew she wanted a university in Texas that would challenge her academically while offering the kind of community that could help her find her footing.
She felt drawn to The University of Texas at San Antonio for its strong sense of pride in San Antonio, its designation as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and the welcoming atmosphere on campus.
After showing an interest in UT San Antonio, Vallejo was encouraged to apply for the Top Scholar program. Top Scholar is UT San Antonio’s premier scholar program, providing high-achieving students with a comprehensive four-year scholarship, close mentorship, leadership development and service opportunities.
She was selected as one of 10 students in her cohort for her first semester, which provided a built-in community for her from the start.
“It was incredible that I was able to go into college already having friends and belonging to a group,” Vallejo said. “My parents completed their education in Mexico, so they were less familiar with the U.S. college system, and Top Scholar helped me navigate what to join, when to do things and where to find support.”
Vallejo will graduate this May with a Bachelor of Science in neuroscience with a concentration in behavioral neuroscience, a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and a minor in French.
Through the Honors College, a Boren Scholarship and undergraduate research, Vallejo has built a multifaceted academic profile.
Connecting research, language and identity
During her first semester at UT San Antonio, Vallejo joined the Wicha Brain, Language, and Cognition Lab. For two years, she contributed to research on bilingual children, multiplication fact learning, word association and semantic access in the brain.
The experience helped Vallejo begin connecting her interests in psychology, neuroscience and language. Growing up speaking Spanish at home, the work also showed her how her personal background could become part of her academic and professional identity.
“That was the first time that I got to use my Spanish in a formal research setting,” Vallejo said. “To see my family language, the language that I associate with home, in a professional research environment was life-changing. It helped me understand that the different parts of who I am could work together in my academic and professional life.”
A global classroom
As her academic journey progressed, Vallejo’s studies soon expanded beyond San Antonio.
In summer 2023, she used her Top Scholar funding to study cognitive psychology through Oxford University’s Lady Margaret Hall Summer Programme. That fall, she studied abroad in Urbino, Italy, through the College of Liberal and Fine Arts.
During her time there, she wrote and published “Opera Maestra,” a play about the balance between religion and science in 17th-century Rome. The project drew on historical sources in Latin, Italian, English, Spanish and French, reinforcing her belief that her academic interests did not need to fit within one discipline.
“I think the lesson that I took away from my experiences is that I can combine disciplines as much as I want to,” Vallejo said. “There is not a single thing on my resume that is there because I just thought it would look good. I have been able to find so many opportunities that I really, truly want to do.”
In spring 2025, Vallejo joined the Team on Acculturation, Risk, and the Development of Identity and Self (TARDIS Lab.) There, she has translated research materials from English to Spanish, conducted interviews and contributed to work related to identity, acculturation and mental well-being.
That same year, Vallejo received a Boren Scholarship and participated in the African Flagship Language Initiative. She completed a domestic summer program at the University of Florida before traveling to Dakar, Senegal, where she studied advanced French, Wolof, Senegalese history and politics, art, literature, migration and urbanization.
At UT San Antonio, Vallejo has also served as president of the French Club, executive director of the Top Scholar Student Organization and a teaching assistant for the French department. She said scholarship support gave her the freedom to fully pursue those opportunities.
“Donors and scholarship supporters are literally saving and changing lives,” Vallejo said. “There are so many people who feel like they have potential, but they are never given a chance to show it or develop it because they are focused on living day by day. Scholarships break generational cycles, and they give students the space to become who they are capable of becoming.”
After graduation, Vallejo will begin a master’s program in neuroscience at Aix-Marseille Université in France, where she will study on a full scholarship from the French government. The program will allow her to continue exploring the questions that have shaped her time at UT San Antonio, including how neuroscience, psychology, language and identity intersect.
She expects to fulfill a federal service commitment connected to the Boren Scholarship after completing her master’s program and is also considering a future PhD and career in neuropsychology.
As she prepares for that next chapter, Vallejo said she is leaving UT San Antonio with more than degrees, research experience and international opportunities. She is leaving with a community that helped her imagine what was possible.
“This has genuinely become my community,” Vallejo said. “UT San Antonio and Top Scholar have become my entire life, and I’ve been having a difficult time processing leaving here because this has become so important to me. What I’m most proud of is the community I’ve built and the way people here have shown up for me.”
That support, she said, is what she will carry with her next, from San Antonio to France and wherever her work in neuroscience, language and service leads.
