“Being biracial and polyglottic, I am fascinated by different cultures and languages. I met people from all around the world who shared the same interests as me and taught me so much about their cultures.”
A pressing issue in Southern California is the illegal immigration of Mexican and Latino individuals. Most of these immigrants work for minimum wage, if not lower, thus making it difficult to provide for their families. Their children commonly do not have sufficient supplies for school and cannot attend after school programs while their parents work. The schools these children attend are poorly funded and in many cases, the schools cannot afford school counselors or after school tutors. This lack of attention causes many of these children to resort to joining gangs and obtaining drugs.
To combat this issue, I have worked with over thirty students in the Spanish Club at my school to form a philanthropic group that will help these children receive needed attention and funding. Starting in 2020, members of the Spanish Club will take time after school and go to schools of all ages (elementary to high school) that many immigrant students attend. There, members of the Spanish Club will find ways to entertain the students such as playing games and helping them with homework. In addition, the Spanish Club will host fundraisers from bakesales to giveaways which will be used to help raise funding for after school programs and counseling for these schools. Our club will primarily focus on aiding schools in Santa Ana, CA and Anaheim, CA.
Over time, our group will hope to see fewer children resort to bad choices given that they will receive the attention they deserve. As this issue is one that requires a lot of time as well as the involvement of many people, I will work with my club and other philanthropic groups to raise awareness for this much-ignored issue.