2022-100-Faces-Book - Flipbook - Page 104
Jaquelin
Student. Dreamer. Animal lover.
A senior at Lead Academy High School, Jaquelin’s
wisdom and spirit span beyond her years. When she’s
not studying to maintain her 3.9 grade point average,
she’s writing to her senators, lobbying for tuition
equality and marching for immigrant rights. She landed
a perfect score on the ACT’s reading section, despite
English being her second language. She and her family
came to the U.S. from Mexico when she was two years
old. She’s a DACA recipient and uses her perspective
to advocate for her peers and the Latino community, a
voice she’s honing through Oasis Center’s International
Teen Outreach Program (ITOP) at her school.
“It’s not just my obligations to my family or my
obligations to myself,” Jaquelin says. “I have an
obligation to my community.”
ITOP gives teens the space to explore their identity and
build friendships. It’s a community for teens who want
to create real, positive change in Nashville.
“Jaquelin has always stuck out as someone people
want to rally behind because she is strong, smart,
empathetic and an innate leader,” says ITOP specialist
Hannah Beath.
Hannah read another student’s scholarship application
where the prompt was to write about someone who
inspired them. This student wrote about Jaquelin.
“ITOP is the only space where they’re getting to have
these conversations where they can really explore their
identity,” Hannah says. “They know their identity isn’t
just tolerated; it’s celebrated.”
Education is Jaquelin’s parents’ top priority for their
children. They’ve made sacrifices so that Jaquelin
could focus on her studies, take AP courses and go to
college. She hopes to attend Lipscomb University or
Trevecca University and to major in psychology, with
the goal of becoming a psychologist.
“I see her becoming the face of this movement to
create a more equal society,” Hannah says.
Jaquelin’s parents are active in local politics and
encourage her to advocate for tuition equality, an
issue that affects many immigrant students. Not being
able to receive affordable tuition—and an education—
can be a barrier to success, inhibiting their chances
of securing higher-paying jobs, fueling economic
inequality among immigrant communities.
“I feel like we should pay the same price that citizens
pay as we are all working toward the same goal of
success,” Jaquelin says.
ITOP encourages teens like Jaquelin to find their voice
and navigate complex topics. Hannah says there is
often fear surrounding advocacy, especially in teens.
“She wrote about Jackie’s kindness,” Hannah says.
“A lot of people, especially teenagers, go through life
with a narrow focus and don’t understand or have
the capacity to understand what others are going
through. For another 18-year-old to say, ‘I recognize
this kindness in you and your ability to make me think
about the world in a different and bigger way,’
it’s beautiful.”
“There’s a lot of feeling like you need to hide in the
shadows, but for her I think her growth journey has
been coming out of the background and demanding to
be seen by her community,” she said. “She was talking
to me about Day on the Hill and she said, ‘You know, I
could be scared or I could just be scared and do
it anyway.’ ”
In ITOP, students share their cultural identities and
work to understand each other’s communities.
“If someone has to do it,” Jaquelin says, “why can’t it
be me?”
International Teen Outreach Program
