College students pursuing a career in public health are getting some much-needed help. 

The help is coming in the form of scholarships.

Mirando Cano and Marco Cruz are seniors in Public Health at the Texas A&M campus in McAllen.

They each come from humble beginnings, and have seen first hand on what the community needs. 

"I want to be the person that stays and makes sure that I use what I've learned from higher education to implement into the community, just because this area is so underserved, and we need more access to care," Cano said.

"I know there's not a lot of opportunities in terms of healthcare administration here in the Valley," Cruz said. "I see the opportunity as — well, there's none here, well, let's make some."

Public health students work on projects that advocate for more health programs and safer infrastructure in colonias, but achieving their goals has been a challenge. 

"It requires a lot of community outreach and to do so, it requires funds," Cruz said. "Funds that, especially as a senior, I've seen that a lot of opportunities have narrowed just because we don't have those sufficient funds."

"Becoming a senior public health student, the courses do get more expensive and because of that I had an outstanding bill for the first time," Cano said.

That's why AT&T donated $25,000 in scholarship money to Texas A&M. It will go to public health students like Cruz and Cano who live or work with colonias. 

"This scholarship was so important because it kind of like removed that financial burden that was kind of like a glass window between me and other opportunities," Cano said.

The amount each student is awarded varies from person to person, but Cruz hopes the funding will give more students the chance to study abroad on scholarship, like he did.