From EIP to Amazon Futures Scholar and Honors College student

Kimberly Montesflores Gonzalez already had a strong relationship with George Mason University before she enrolled as a freshman this fall.

“I'm an Early Identification Program (EIP) alumni, so I basically grew up in George Mason. I just liked the community and how at home I felt, so I knew that it was a good fit for me,” she said.

With more than 2,000 graduates, EIP provides access to educational resources for middle and high school students who will be the first in their families to attend a college or university.

As part of her EIP experience, Montesflores Gonzalez took dual enrollment classes in high school. “I took cybersecurity and programming classes where I learned a lot about the basics of computers, but I wanted to learn more about how the software part works.”

She also has a passion for coding and is enrolled in Introduction to Computer Programming.

“I'm excited about this course because I get to learn more about how Python works and experiment more in my coding,” said Montesflores Gonzalez. “Python is a programming language, and that’s something every programmer needs to learn.”

The computer science major received an Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship, which comes with $40,000 and an Amazon internship, which will start next summer. She also received one of Mason’s University Scholars awards, a full tuition scholarship given to select students from the Honors College.

Montesflores Gonzalez also hopes to join a few clubs at Mason. “One of my professors mentioned there's a club called ‘Girls Who Code’ and it sounds really interesting,” she said.

Outside of schoolwork, Montesflores Gonzalez helps take care of her two younger siblings, and is going into her fifth year as a catechist at her church teaching children.

For her high school capstone, Montesflores Gonzalez did work with the diversity, equity, and inclusion office where she organized events and held diversity talks about our culture and how students felt in the school.

In the future, Montesflores Gonzalez hopes to utilize her coding and programming skills for an organization that positively impacts her community, she said.

Montesflores Gonzalez also hopes to become an EIP mentor while at Mason.