Fellow Profile: Brenda Esqueda

Hey! My name is Brenda Esqueda, I am a senior at Omaha South High Magnet school in Omaha, Nebraska and a proud Packer! I am an Executive Board member of my school’s National Honor Society chapter, Characters in Action service club and President of Student Council. I am also section leader of our band’s color guard. I am a perpetual optimist, music addict, and Converse collector. 

I am the older sister of two munchkins, my ten year old sister and eight year old brother and the daughter of two very hard working human beings, my mother and father who left their home in Valle de Santiago, Guanajuato, Mexico to allow me the luxury that it is to dream and pursue my dreams. I have goals of studying Nonprofit Management and International Education. The thought of being able to travel the world teaching children in adversity and reading all of the stories they have to write gives me chills every single time I think about it. It is a dream of mine to make a change in the world, no matter how small. I want my life to have an impact on others and to inspire them. Becoming a part of the Joyce Ivy Foundation has helped me get a step further to doing so. 

I attended the Harvard Summer School Program of 2015, a seven-week program. I took two courses, Introduction to Philosophy and Management of Nonprofit Organizations. I fell in utter love with both. I was also able to meet amazing people throughout this experience. I now have friends throughout the world from Hong Kong to Switzerland to Saudi Arabia, Istanbul, Greece, Cuba, and Brazil. It is incredible to me how a little girl from Nebraska was surrounded by so many incredible, diverse people. The summer of ’15 was filled with some of my most treasured memories from daily bubble tea and mochi trips, to taking a picture with my Philosophy professor and asking him if he was ready with his response being, “Can anyone ever really be ready?”,  to watching the sun  rise on the beach.

I am forever in debt for this experience, one that has changed my life. In my community achievements like these are unheard of, and when I found out that I got accepted I thought it was a joke and was shy about telling others for fear of what they would say. It shouldn’t be that way. Now as a fellow I hope to encourage and help others have unforgettable experiences like this. I want to help others like me, who never really thought they could do something as awesome as attend Harvard during summer and show you, you can!