Introducing our Better Make Room Student Advisory Board Member —Santiago Tobar Potes!
By: Santiago Tobar Potes, Freshman at Columbia University
As a Student Advisory Board member in New York, I will be developing, organizing, and directing programs to accomplish Better Make Room’s mission of college enrollment and graduation for all in the metropolitan area. Given this situation, I envision several projects with New York’s most diverse and valuable communities — particularly those that have long worked in concert with my university’s expansion.
Simply put, I hope to accomplish what Mrs. Obama spoke about President Obama at the 2012 Democratic National Convention: that after one has “walked through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you. You reach back and give other folks the same chances that helped you succeed.” Despite much, I have been blessed with an unyielding team of mentors and advisors, friends, and sponsors that have guided me to do well. I will work to keep that door open for as many people as possible.
Meeting and interacting with Mrs. Obama, in the Diplomatic Reception Room, was profoundly moving. Waiting for her — of all people — in that room of that House — of all places, incited within me, indeed, great emotion. To think that someone born in a small town in the southern part of Colombia would one day work for the First Lady of the United States of America proved to me that despite any difficulties or trials, despite any storms, one is — and will always be — the captain of one’s ship and the master of one’s life. Your future is in your hands.
“I cannot think of a better gift than the gift of education.”
As I contemplate how I arrive to these rather magnanimous conclusions about the human condition, I cannot help but feel indebted to my university’s profound dedication to the life of the mind, indebted to the fact that I am even able to attend a university. This is what a liberal arts education is all about: exposing oneself to as many diverse worlds as possible — through one’s coursework — with the goal of contemplating, critiquing, justifying — understanding — the way civilizations and societies vastly differ from one’s own. I cannot think of a better gift than the gift of education.
“I believe that it is the duty of the empowered to help those that are not.”
Nevertheless, there is a particular indescribability that characterizes that day; it is as though words will not fully encompass the responsibility that my fellow board members and I experienced upon being entrusted with such duty. But I believe that it is the duty of the empowered to help those that are not. Though words may fail me, actions will not. I will work for the overlooked, the underestimated, the forgotten. My work is for them. And I clarify: my actions are not meant to gratify the needs of any immediate recognition or public triumph, but are meant to last as long as the lives of those that I hope to improve. And it is through education that it will happen.
Santiago Tobar Potes was born in Cali, Colombia, and grew up in Miami, FL. As a low-income, first generation and undocumented college student, he sometimes felt isolated with the difficulties particular to his situation. Nonetheless, in spite of those challenges, he studies at Columbia University as a Jack Kent Cooke, Questbridge, Golden Door, and Alexander Hamilton Scholar on a full scholarship. His goal is to make higher education readily available and feasible for all.
