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Eva Longoria admits she was a bit of an educational underachiever compared to her family.
The 39-year-old earned her Chicano Studies Master’s degree in 2013 from California State University at Northridge.
Over the weekend Eva visited Boston to receive the prestigious Artist of the Year Award from Harvard University, and during her speech the star noted she received a Master’s degree years after most of her relatives.
"When I was on Desperate Housewives, it was the number-one show in the world, and I was ranked really high [on the] Forbes list," she told the Harvard crowd, according to People magazine. "I said to my mom, 'Look,' and she said 'Right, when are you getting your Master's?' "
Eva received the Artist of the Year Award for her philanthropic organisations, The Eva Longoria Foundation and Eva’s Heroes, which aim to benefit people’s lives through education.
Eva grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas and often visited Mexico with her parents.
The star loved being cross-cultural and she praised Harvard for their interest in diversity.
"I've kind of lived my life straddling the hyphen of being Mexican-American. I kind of just sit on that hyphen, you know – navigating loving enchiladas and apple pie, loving mariachi music and Britney Spears," she said during her speech. "But there are so many moments in my life that were memorable to that experience of being a hybrid, of being a hyphen.
"[My dad] said they were born on the other side – el otro lado – and I said, 'Dad, why were we born on this side?' and he said, 'Luck,' and I never forgot that. And I never forgot how important it was to be an American."