Degree: B.A. in Sociology
How did the Stamps Scholarship help shape your undergraduate experience?
The Stamps Scholarship gave me the opportunity to attend USC and to also experience the world beyond it. With exceptional funding, I was able to study abroad in Spain, refining my fluency of the Spanish language and researching European immigration policies. I was also able to fund my travel all over the United States, where I attended both local and national educational policy conferences. As an aspiring educator and passionate educational justice advocate, these trips gave me the unique opportunity to build a network of like-minded educational policy experts, with whom I’ve organized numerous initiatives and projects over the past four years.
Tell us a piece of wisdom you’ve learned over the past four years.
Don’t let the good keep you from being great. Sometimes the biggest obstacle standing between you and your ultimate goals is not something bad, like lack of time or confidence, but rather something good that you settle for. I’ve learned to not let myself get too comfortable and to always aim for what I truly want, even if it means giving up a current “good” job offer or “good” work schedule.
Who has had the greatest impact on you throughout your college career and how so?
As an educational advocate, it is the students I meet, whether in the classroom where I tutor them in test prep or at conferences where they are sharing their stories of resistance to an oppressive education system, that have changed my life the most. I will always carry the story of every student I have had with me as I continue my journey of becoming the greatest educator I can be.
What’s your favorite Stamps Scholar memory?
Definitely performing “Girl on Fire” at the Stamps National Convention in 2013. I met so many wonderful people at that convention and it was an honor to be able to share my music and voice with them.
What comes next?
I will be starting graduate school in Fall 2017 at my top choice program: University of San Francisco’s M.A. in Teaching – Urban Education and Social Justice with a History/Social Science teaching credential.
Please share your favorite inspirational quote.
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” – W.B. Yeats