When Leslie Diaz propped up her phone to record a “get ready with me” video as part of her Alix Earle Scholarship application, she had no idea what was to come in the following months.
“Leslie did a ‘get ready with me’ style video for her application, which right away made me smile,” Earle said. “But there was a sincerity to this video that resonated with me. It didn’t feel superficial and polished, it came from the heart.”
Even before winning this competitive scholarship, Diaz has achieved another major milestone. She is a first generation, Mexican-American student studying legal studies and international business. After her sister, Diaz is the second person in her family to go to college.
“Hearing how determined Leslie was being [one of] the first in her family to attend college was inspiring,” Earle added. “Although I didn’t get to select the students myself, I could tell that Leslie was the right choice. Beyond the means of the scholarship I felt that she wanted to challenge herself to do more and make the most of this opportunity.”
After not only getting to attend a university, but also intern at Inter Miami CF, Diaz has been able to go back to her high school to talk to other students in the same position as she was in just a few years prior.
“Coming to school is a big deal,” Diaz said. “A big achievement on more of a personal level is being a role model to a lot of people in my community.”
The entire scholarship application process was daunting to Diaz. She described putting off the application until the final week before it was due. After a pep-talk from one of her business professors, she got started on her application. After finishing its written portion, Diaz began the daunting task of brainstorming what she could do for the required video portion.
“I had absolutely no idea what to do for my video,” Diaz said.
On the due date, Diaz took inspiration from the same type of videos she had seen on Alix Earle’s TikTok account, and she filmed a ‘get ready with me.’ She described the decision as high-risk, high-reward, because she was not sure if the evaluators would understand the format. It was a gamble, but it felt right.
“I’m thinking, like I don’t know if the people on the board for the business school are gonna understand the get ready with me reference, but it’s me and it’s authentic, so I’m just gonna go for it, and it ended up working.”
Through this scholarship, Diaz has also gained a mentor in Earle. Earle’s unwavering support and guidance has helped Diaz through her last two years of her undergraduate studies, and now into her life as she prepares to navigate the entrepreneurial business world post graduation. Diaz plans to attend law school after exploring the corporate business world.
“Alix has been an incredible person to have by my side while graduating and navigating this new world, especially when it comes to the business sense,” Diaz said. “She’s just someone who is extremely business-savvy and authentic, and she’s always open to talk and happy to help.”
For Diaz, the scholarship’s impact extends beyond her own journey. It fuels her passion to expand access to education within the Latino community, specifically Mexican-American students.
“Something that I find extremely important is pushing education to people in the Latino community, especially the Mexican community,” Diaz said. “We should be pursuing this because through higher education is where we get into better roles, we have more doctors and more people in government positions that are Mexican or that are Latino and that can really really make a difference.”