Katherine Lopez, center, celebrates her white coat ceremony at UTCVM, Aug. 20, 2023. From left, Katherine’s mother, Dr. Danny Walker, Katherine, her father and brother. Photo Credit/Katherine López
“In September 2017, this huge hurricane – Hurricane Maria – hit the island and all the universities closed. Now I can laugh about it, but in the moment, it was horrible. It was like a horror movie.”
Katherine López, recent UT Martin alumna and current student at UT College of Veterinary Medicine, describes the moment that changed her life.
Now, almost five years later, Katherine is the first UT Martin alumnus to receive the largest scholarship offered to students at UTCVM: the Ingram Family Scholarship.
Her story begins in her hometown of Corozal, Puerto Rico in 2017.
In the wake of Hurricane Maria, she and her father were stuck without water and electricity. Supermarkets began rationing food and water. Plane tickets to leave the island were more than $2,000 per person. The University of Puerto Rico, where Katherine studied biology, announced that its doors would not reopen until the following year.
“All I could think about was, what’s going to happen with my education?” she says.
Fearful for her future and anxious to continue her education, Katherine began considering her options.
Should she stay in Puerto Rico and wait an entire year to restart classes? Should she try to start over somewhere else?
“My mom, at the time, she was living in Chicago. I asked [her] if she could apply to programs in the States. She said, ‘What kind of programs do you want?’ And I said, ‘Mama, I don’t know. Just apply to something animal related.’”
“I think she applied to eight different universities, and UT Martin was the first university to call me,” Katherine says with a smile.
Within four months, Katherine uprooted her life in Puerto Rico and moved more than 1,800 miles to attend UTM. She began classes in January 2018 as a veterinary health technology major. In the beginning, she struggled to adjust to her new home. Aside from her homesickness and the extreme culture shock, she says her biggest challenge was the language barrier.
“I didn’t know conversational English at all,” she says. “It was tough. My first year, I used to cry a lot because…I didn’t know the language and I couldn’t make friends.”
Dr. Danny Walker, associate professor of veterinary health technology, was one of Katherine’s first professors at UT Martin. He noticed her quiet nature in the classroom and her struggle to communicate.
“She was scared absolutely to death when I first met her,” Walker says. “She always had questions after class, and it was the language barrier more than anything else … She really had trouble with English for a while, just understanding what you were saying.”
Katherine says that, while she could read and write in English, she struggled with speaking the language and avoided it when she could.
“It was hard, but just getting thrown to the wolves – I guess that helps you. Being surrounded by people that do not speak Spanish is a good way to learn a new language, I guess,” she laughs.
Walker noticed that Katherine began to make friends with her classmates and her English improved as time passed. He believes her humble, bubbly personality was a positive addition to the existing student dynamic in the program.
“The vet tech bunch especially is sort of a close-knit bunch. I think that helped her, but she also helped them too. She was an encourager,” Walker says. “They all feed off of each other. Except she was the one…that everyone was trying to be like.”
Katherine smiles warmly as she recalls when she first met Walker. At a time when she struggled to find her place in Martin, his kindness came at the perfect moment.
“He noticed me. He noticed when I was down or when I was happy,” Katherine says. “He noticed when I was way over in my head and whenever I got a B on an exam. He’d be like, ‘Katherine, that’s not everything in life.’”
In the classroom, Katherine fully dedicated herself to success, and her professors quickly took note. Her passion for veterinary science and earning her education set her apart from other students.
“She had a goal in mind. She wanted to do well in all of her classes, all the way from chemistry to everything. Somebody that’s really that focused, they’re going to be successful in whatever they decide they want to do,” Walker says.
Katherine’s heart for animal welfare drives her desire for success. From a young age, she felt obligated to care for stray animals living on the streets of Puerto Rico. Seeing the widespread animal neglect and abandonment broke her heart and inspired her to pursue a career in the animal care industry.
UT Martin’s vet technology program satisfied Katherine’s desire to care for animals, but Walker and Roberts agree on her potential to go further. With her determination and passion, they believed attending vet school was a possibility for her.
“Since there were no vet schools in Puerto Rico, I kind of forgot they existed…That idea was so foreign in my head,” she says.
Dr. Jason Roberts, professor of animal science, was another of Katherine’s mentor during her time at UT Martin. He remembers both her academic strength and insecurity about her potential.
“She never believed she would get in [to vet school] even though she was, like, the model candidate,” Roberts says, smiling. “You know, if you make up a candidate, it’s her.”
Until the day Walker mentioned it, she had never seriously considered vet school. The financial aspect, the commitment, her own potential – could she do that?
“I remember when he told me, I got all excited and scared at the same time. It was a huge step for me. I never thought I could do it, and I remember being, like, insecure about it,” she says.
With encouragement from her mentors, she applied to UTCVM and was offered a seat in the class of 2026. The anxious young woman who struggled to speak the language of her new country in 2018 had become a vet school student.
Her mentors were not surprised by her acceptance. Roberts says Katherine “blossomed” throughout her time at UT Martin. Walker says she became a confident young woman – in her speaking, in her potential and in herself.
Katherine graduated from UT Martin in May 2022 with dual degrees in veterinary science and veterinary technology. In fall 2022, she began her studies at UTCVM.
“Tennessee was where everything started. It’s meant to be, I guess,” she laughs, explaining why she chose to attend UTCVM.
Each year, the beginning of a new student’s journey in vet school is marked by a special ceremony. First-year students walk across the stage before their family and friends to receive their white coat. Many students ask their mentor to walk with them and present their coat.
For her white coat ceremony, Katherine chose her mentor, Dr. Walker.
“For her to ask me, I thought it was very special,” Walker says. “That was really the first or second time that I’d been asked to do that. It was very touching to have somebody come from her situation and do really well and get a good scholarship.”
Competing with nearly 100 of her fellow first-year students, Katherine applied for the Ingram Family Scholarship in fall 2022. For UTCVM’s largest scholarship, the family chooses a candidate demonstrating strong personal integrity, compassion and a commitment to the veterinary profession, among other qualities.
“Yes, I want to be a veterinarian, but also that question of the financial aspect of it is always in the back of your head,” Katherine says. “Knowing that, you know, I can think … ‘Oh, maybe I can specialize, maybe I can do this, maybe I can join this club,’ because I don’t have to think about ‘Well, do I have the money to be able to do this?’”
As the newest recipient of the Ingram Family Scholarship, many of Katherine’s financial worries have been put to rest. She hopes to specialize in cardiology, an option that is now financially possible.
“I’m open to other stuff, … but I fell in love with the heart and its functionality, and I want to pursue that,” she says.
As a survivor of Hurricane Maria, a stranger in a new country, and now a college graduate and veterinary student, Katherine’s story is full of hope. The word ‘hope’ is woven throughout her life, and it is the word she uses to describe what her scholarship means to her.
“It is hope for my future since the Ingram family views me as having the potential to make a difference in veterinary medicine and to have the potential to be a person that will contribute to society,” she says. “I am beyond grateful, beyond grateful, for the Ingram family.”
Through her career, she hopes to become an advocate for both Hispanic people and animal welfare. Hispanic people in the U.S. speak mostly Spanish, which often limits which vet clinics they can visit. Sadly, their pets do not receive routine care due to language barriers.
As someone familiar with language barriers, Katherine wishes to provide veterinary services without borders. People are a large part of Katherine’s story. From the time she landed in Martin, she remembers the warmth and kindness shown to her that made her feel at home. She attributes much of her past and present success to people – specifically, her family, friends and professors.
“Me being here is not because I grabbed a book and I studied really hard. Yeah, that helped,” she says, “but they got me in the door. Now I’m here trying to do my best, but they are the ones that got me here.”
When she is not studying, Katherine enjoys exercising, traveling, reading, and watching documentaries and TV shows.
Her favorite hobby, however, is cooking Puerto Rican food.
