Ashley Equíhua, a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign senior majoring in nutrition and health in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, is the Lincoln Academy Student Laureate Award recipient for 2024.

Each year, a single outstanding senior from each four-year-degree-granting institution of higher learning in Illinois is awarded the Abraham Lincoln Civic Engagement Award, becoming Student Laureate of the Lincoln Academy of Illinois. The Lincoln Academy says student Laureates are honored and selected for their outstanding leadership and service toward improving the lives of others, as well as for their overall excellence in academic and extracurricular accomplishments.

“I am deeply honored to receive this acknowledgment, and I wholeheartedly dedicate it to all first-generation Latinx college students,” Equíhua said. “With the support of one another, we can persevere and reach the once-unattainable.”

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Ashley Equíhua

Equíhua’s curiosity for medicine arose from the comfort she found in doctor visits as a child, where she would serve as her parents’ lead translator. Since then, medicine has been her desired path, and her passion has only grown. Now, Equíhua aims to represent and care for her community for the rest of her life.

In addition to her nutrition and health degree in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition (FSHN), Equíhua is currently pursuing a minor in public health, aligning with her passion for equity, health, and research. Equíhua plans to attend medical school after graduating, but she’s not waiting until her career starts to make meaningful changes in her community. As part of McKinley’s Nutrition Peers program and as an FSHN student ambassador, Equíhua has been applying her passions to address campus-wide nutrition concerns for students while also promoting the FSHN program. 

Equíhua is also the community service chair for MANRRS-Illinois — a collegiate chapter of the national society for Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences. During the 2024 MANRRS Training Conference and Career Expo in March, Equíhua won the contest to select the theme for the 2025 national MANRRS conference; her theme, “I Am, Because You Are,” will inform programming for the entire 2025 MANRRS conference. 

Equíhua has also become a Medicina Scholar, a member of the Mobile Migrant Health Team, and a Carle Health Volunteer, dedicating her time to aiding others and promoting Latinx empowerment. Outside of the classroom, Equíhua has traveled to Panama, Italy, and South Africa, partaking in faculty-led study abroad, service-learning programs. With an interest in global health, she serves as the trip coordinator for Global Medical Training where she has expanded her perspective and provided for medically deprived communities in Panama and soon in Peru. 

Alongside these accomplishments, Equíhua has just been selected as part of the 2024 Homecoming Court for her outstanding leadership.

“We are so proud that this year’s U. of I. Lincoln Academy Student Laureate is an ACES student,” said ACES Dean Germán Bollero. “Ashley truly represents what we try to instill in all of our students: achievement, leadership, self-discovery, community-orientation, and momentum. We can’t wait to see what she does next.”

Laureates are honored at a ceremony in Springfield, where they receive a letter and certificate of merit signed by Governor J.B. Pritzker, a Lincoln medallion, a challenge coin, and a monetary award