Moorpark High grad Jimenez joins UCLA as first-generation Bruin

Alison Jimenez visited a Thousand Oaks free clinic as a child, watching her parents struggle to understand their English-speaking doctors. This fall, the Moorpark High School graduate heads to UCLA as the first in her family to attend a university.

Jimenez, whose parents immigrated from Mexico, will study molecular, cell and developmental biology, UCLA's newsroom reported Thursday, Sept. 17. Her connection to healthcare started at the Westminster Free Clinic, where she went with her family for annual checkups and school-supply backpacks.

The clinic had few Spanish-speaking interpreters. Jimenez's parents could not fully understand what their providers told them. That gap stuck with her.

"Since I was a little girl, my mom would take me to her Guadalupana events at our Catholic church," Jimenez told UCLA's newsroom. "Her faith inspired mine and my desire to serve my community."

During her sophomore year at Moorpark High, Jimenez landed an internship at the Westminster Clinic and was put to work as a bilingual translator. By her second year she had been promoted to a patient-flow manager, responsible for making sure patients were seen on time, according to a Ventura County Office of Education profile published May 22.

She completed 12 Advanced Placement classes during high school. Jimenez credited Moorpark High counselor Belen Soriano with opening doors along the way. "I'm very grateful to her. All of the opportunities I have come back to Ms. Soriano," she said in the May VCOE profile.

Lisa Brach Safaeinili, executive director of the Westminster Free Clinic, served as Jimenez's mentor during the internship. The clinic provides free healthcare to uninsured Ventura County residents at locations in Thousand Oaks, Oxnard and Santa Paula. It engages more than 350 high school students as volunteers each year and was named the state's 2025 Nonprofit of the Year.

Jimenez, the second-youngest of four siblings, brought her family to UCLA's "Bruins Unidos" event, a Spanish-language campus tour that included dancing to her parents' favorite songs.

"Seeing my parents experience community — in a language they understand — at the university I will be attending made all the difference for me," Jimenez told UCLA's newsroom.