I am not underprivileged. I am not impoverished. I am low-income. I am powerful.
It’s taken me time to understand these concepts and appreciate the weight that rests on my shoulders. I am the product of seemingly contradictory forces. A citizen of Peru and now also the United States, formerly under-resourced, now on full scholarship, first generation college student, now at Williams College, an elite liberal arts institution. Prestige without pedigree. I am forged from the fires of hardship, and cooled in the sweet waters of love and tenderness.
Leaven has effectively changed my life trajectory. But it’s up to me to fashion my way forward, with the tools and guidance Leaven provides. I am now double majoring in Economics and Japanese at Williams. The route to my future is not entirely clear, but this is nothing new to me. I am charting my own course. And along the way, I am giving to others in the same way that others have helped me. Currently, I am a certified Volunteer Income Tax Assistant in the rural town of North Adams, MA. Outside of tax season, I serve for Converging Worlds, working locally to break the school-to-prison pipeline for low-income middle school black and Hispanic youth.
One path of possibility opens another. Work begets work. But I am undaunted.
Sometimes I wonder: What is my potential? Why are people willing to risk so much on me? As my training in economics informs me, there is no such thing as a free lunch. I am an investment. I am not a charity case, but rather an individual who carries the burden and privilege of a brighter future.
Through scholarship, I’ll bring this future into reality. So now, when I look out from my dorm room on to a rural landscape that is home to Williams, situated in a fertile valley of opportunity and hope, I know it is also my home. I belong here too.