How your personal and professional experiences will enrich the Kellogg community
How your personal and professional experiences will enrich the Kellogg community.
I believe my experiences building communities that are connected, supportive, and successful will help me enrich the diverse Kellogg community.
In Podunk, Iowa, where I grew up, I loved the symbiotic relationship between Podunk University and the town itself. When I went to Cornell University however, the school and the town of Ithaca seemed less integrated. At Cornell, therefore, I looked to political organizing as a way to build bonds that would bridge the Cornell and Ithaca communities. I volunteered to register my fellow students to vote and see themselves as active members of the Ithaca community, and I knocked on doors in poorer Ithaca neighborhoods to make sure all voices were heard at the ballot box. I am excited to make connections from the Kellogg campus out to Evanston and the broader Chicago area through Kellogg Cares, bringing my experience connecting Cornell students and Ithaca residents to Kellogg Care events such as mentoring local high school students or helping to organize sign-up drives for nonprofits like Habitat for Humanity.
As a data programming major at Cornell, I was often one of a handful of Latino students in my classes. This dynamic propelled me to seek opportunities for Hispanic-focused leadership. In my sophomore year I served as a Lathisms Scholar, in my junior year I was a STEM Mentor for underclassmen, and in my senior year I joined a mentorship cohort through the Grant Wood Multicultural Leadership Initiative. I am eager to bring what I learned through these experiences to Kellogg’s Hispanic Management Association, to help plan the HMA’s Alumnae Dinner Series, serve on the Mentorship and Alumni committees, and support my fellow HMA members. My experiences in multicultural leadership will help me enrich the already thriving Hispanic/Latinx community at Kellogg.
In fall 2020, living and working in Dallas, I joined the youth voter outreach organization Youth Voters of America as a team lead on the text bank. We not only facilitated voter outreach, but also helped volunteers connect across the country with likeminded young people. I started kickoff meetings with icebreakers, encouraged volunteers to bond remotely by sharing non-work photos via Slack, and facilitated one-on-one volunteer onboarding. Despite the quarantine, Youth Voters created a virtual community that sent over 11 million texts encouraging voter participation in swing states, in what became a record election for youth voter turnout. At Kellogg, I hope to enrich the student community by bringing this organizing experience to the Kellogg Student Association. I intend to seek an elected role in KSA and take active role in planning social events, bringing an array of speakers to campus, and ensure the student voice is represented as Kellogg fulfills its commitment to an inclusive community experience.