Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Financial struggles help inspire academic success for UNLV Outstanding Graduate

UNLV's Outstanding Graduates

Steve Marcus

Mae Ling Catayong, one of UNLV’s outstanding graduates, poses on UNLV campus Tuesday, May 9, 2023, in Las Vegas.

Mae Ling Catayong was still a teenager when she realized that resources some may take for granted are not easily available to all.

Her hard-of-hearing mother’s hearing aids broke, and as an immigrant who was never taught sign language in school, Catayong’s mother couldn’t communicate with her family. They couldn’t afford replacements, so the family resorted to typing out their conversations on her smartphone.

Finally her family qualified for Medicaid, which covered the cost of new hearing aids.

Watching her mother tear up while listening to their car’s air conditioning system running for the first time in weeks sparked Catayong’s passion for making health care more accessible to marginalized communities, she said.

“I remember just getting super emotional for her because I know it was a really tough time for her,” Catayong said. “That was one thing that helped me realize how important it is to get health care to the people who really, really need it.”

Catayong, 22, one of UNLV’s Outstanding Graduates, will receive her bachelor’s degree in psychology this weekend. The 10 graduates earning the recognition were selected by UNLV President Keith Whitfield from more than 150 nominees, according to the university.

Catayong is one of roughly 3,500 students — from undergraduate to doctoral — between the ages of 18 and 76 who are graduating from UNLV during the university’s two-day spring commencement activities today and Saturday.

A child of ethnically Chinese and Filipino immigrants, Catayong was born in Chicago and spent most of her life being raised by a single mother in a small town outside of Miami. She moved to Las Vegas with her family in 2017 and had difficulties transitioning to her new life in Nevada.

Catayong said her mental health plummeted during that time, affecting her academics and even forcing her to finish high school online. Therapy wasn’t an option due to costs, she said.

“I think I always just never really thought of it being a possibility to get therapy,” Catayong said. “My head just wasn’t as important compared to other things that we had to pay for, like bills and our food.”

Four years and a global pandemic later, Catayong’s mother was still reliant on her when her disability and masking made it more difficult for her to speak with customers, forcing her out of work.

She was also mourning her stepfather of 10 years who had died suddenly of a heart attack in 2021, leaving Catayong and her mother with overwhelming grief and no stable income. The pair eventually had to sell their house in Las Vegas. While Catayong’s mother moved back to Chicago to live with some friends, Catayong remained in Southern Nevada to finish her schooling.

Catayong said she was scrambling to find a place to live and considered taking a break from school, but that would’ve meant putting off her “mom’s biggest dream” for Catayong.

That was when UNLV’s Marta Meana stepped in.

“It was evident to me that (Catayong) was both incredibly intelligent — and I mean, when you say that about an honors student, they’re all really smart — but Mae Ling was extraordinary,” said Meana, a longtime UNLV faculty member who also served as the university’s acting president for a two-year stint ending in August 2020,. “But I could also tell that something was going on with her.”

Meana, who taught one of Catayong’s upper-division psychology honors courses, reached out to her student, scheduled a meeting with her and listened to Catayong’s struggles. They spoke some more about solutions when Meana explained that finishing school first would bring more opportunities for Catayong to later support her mother in the long-term.

Others from UNLV also stepped up to offer Catayong resources, compassion and support that she never thought she’d receive.

Conversations like the one with Meana and other support from every corner of the university changed her whole belief on seeking help, Catayong said.

“Especially as a first-generation college student and a child of immigrants, it’s hard to think about seeking support from other people because I think you’re just so used to doing it by yourself,” Catayong said. “Coming to college and getting support that I never thought that I would get was just really just life changing, (and) it changed my whole perspective.”

Deciding to continue her education in spite of the hardships, Catayong went on to become a research assistant at the UNLV Music Lab, an intern at the university’s Disability Resource Center and a teaching assistant.

Her academic successes led her to participate in the university’s Philip J. Cohen Scholars program and Academic Success Center’s Hixson-Lied Success Program — a scholarship requiring accepted students to maintain full-time enrollment, complete a specific set of service hours and serve as a peer leader to other UNLV undergraduates, according to the university’s website.

She also helped the National Alliance for Mental Illness’ Las Vegas office research different barriers for minority communities seeking health care resources in Southern Nevada and served as a member of the American Psychology Association.

Catayong isn’t stopping there.

She will be graduating with honors, then strolling down the road in the fall to begin work on her master’s degree in health care administration at UNLV.

After seeing all that Catayong has been able to overcome and accomplish, Meana says she is “incredibly proud” and believes the “remarkably intelligent, kind (and) community-oriented” student will excel in her next steps.

Continuing the commitment to both her mother and the community, Catayong said she would be focusing her graduate studies on how to expand health care access and opportunities to low-income and immigrant communities.

“It’s one of the most fulfilling things,” Catayong said. “Especially since I know what it’s like to be on that side that’s struggling, and I know what it’s like to get that support, to be on the side of giving the support and giving back.”