UC Davis’ Graduating Student: A Child of Immigrants from Mexico

June 7, 2016

Lucydalila Cedillo is the 2016 recipient of the University Medal as the top graduating senior at UC Davis. She talks about growing up in a rough neighborhood in Los Angeles and her time at UC Davis. Now bound for a doctoral program at Harvard University and a career as a professor, the animal science major is the top graduating senior at UC Davis. She will receive the University Medal at the 2 p.m. commencement of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences on Friday, June 10.

A woman sits outdoors — (Jason Spyres/UC Davis photo)

Lucydalila Cedillo’s parents are immigrants from Mexico. Pedro and Dolores Cedillo were not able to continue their own education beyond the seventh grade. But Cedillo spoke of what her father, a mechanic and musician, would tell her: “He would give me those long talks about why it’s a privilege to be here and how I should never take my education for granted. He’d say, ‘Learn as much as you can. No one’s ever going to take it way from you.’”