Hello Everyone!!
My name is Margarita Rodriguez, and I am a Junior at Omaha South High School. I was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, where I was exposed to a variety of different encounters life anywhere is full of, and has made me the proud person I am today.
This summer, I had the privilege of spending two weeks of my summer at Brown University which is located in Providence, Rhode Island, all thanks to the Joyce Ivy Foundation. Providence being more than 1,500 miles away from the place I've always called home, it was an enormous and frightening step for me. I had never flown before, let alone gone anywhere more than a couple hours away by car from home, so going to Brown took a lot of courage and long hours of convincing, but I would not have traded that experience for anything in the world.
While at Brown, I was a part of the Leadership Institute offered during the summer program and within the institute, I was in the class called "Identity, Diversity and Leadership", IDL for short. IDL changed my life for the better, and there is no other way to say it than that. IDL covered aspects of social issues around the world and in our society that I had never heard of. It covered concepts of what makes up our identities and how society portrays them, both positively and negatively. IDL opened my eyes and helped me gain a new perspective about myself and the people around me, both those I was taking the class with and the ones back home. My class was very diverse and although being from other parts of the world, I had never felt so comfortable and attached to a group of people.
Being at Brown, I learned how to appreciate the things I have in my life, ranging from the people I have to the opportunities I am granted everyday, and I learned how to appreciate myself most importantly. I learned how to advocate for myself and use the motivation within to help those in my community struggling the way I was before. Being at Brown made me a stronger and more independent person, one who I honestly never thought I could be.
A grand majority of the students at my high school and the other high schools in the community stay in state and are only 45-75 minutes away from home. So that is why I wanted to become a fellow, to share my experience with the girls in my community and help them see that there is more out there than just Omaha and Lincoln. Change the game for them.
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