My Next Step in Student Advocacy

Repost, Originally Published: March 2021

In middle or high school I could have never imagined that I would go to Harvard.

I was a kid who struggled to grasp concepts, spent the bulk of my lunches with teachers and put in hours studying for a quiz most could cram for before class. I often felt incapable, slow or like something was wrong with me.

My senior year of H.S. I took a test and learned about my learning disability, something that first made evident to me the inequities in education — systems often fail to meet the needs of all students and tend to be more focused on information retention than knowledge or critical thinking.

Without the encouragement of teachers, mentors, family, & friends, I am certain that I would have slipped through the cracks. I was privileged to have people offering me resources and showing me my own potential.

THANK YOU to everyone who believed in me & helped me get here — especially my parents (Julianne, Albert), Andres, Michael, Steven, Abby, Seàn-Patrick, Gloria, Aurora Becerra, and Troy Camp.

As part of the #HGSE Master of Education program in Education Leadership, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship (ELOE) next year, I am excited to continue being an advocate for students and to keep exploring more creative ways to address equity in and access to high-quality education.

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com, March 2021