Dr. Noah Rodriguez is like many doctors who got into their profession to help people, but what stands out is his path to medicine is unlike most others.
The physician grew up in the Ramona Gardens housing project in Boyle Heights.
"It's a neighborhood that is known for lots of negative influences, lots of gang violence and substance abuse, poverty," said Rodriguez.
That environment took the lives of both Rodriguez's sister and cousin.
Get top local stories in Southern California delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC LA's News Headlines newsletter.
"They are the unfortunate realities of many people who grow up in a similar environment," said Rodriguez. "Thinking about the different types of paths that are laid out in front of you, I knew that for me, I didn't want to follow along that path."
Rodriguez created his path, graduating as valedictorian at Wilson High School, then went to Standford University and graduated from medical school at UCLA.
Rodriguez is the first in his family to attend college, an achievement he says he owes to his parents who immigrated to the United States from Mexico in search of the American dream.
Local
Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, COVID, cost of living and more. Here's your go-to source for today's LA news.
"My dad, he came to this country in his early 20s in search of what America promised. Opportunity," said Rodriguez. "Even though he didn't have a formal education, he made sure that he instilled in his kids the importance of an education. Knowing that if you're in the United States and you work hard, you go through school, get an education, then that just opens up the doors."
Rodriguez is now paying it forward, leading Kaiser's Hippocrates Circle Program which inspires underrepresented youth, many of them Hispanic Americans like himself to become doctors.
"It's really fulfilling to be able to be part of this program for me to see them and see them not just as kids who have a dream, but to see them and say, I understand that dream," said Rodriguez. "Every time I see these kids, I see myself in them."
Rodriguez tells his students anything is possible, something his parents told him, a young kid from the projects who dared to dream big.
"It is a point of pride when you think about just that type of resilience, perseverance, that desire to dream, to, to try to get better than what you were born into," said Rodriguez.
