WAVING FLAG
SCHOLARSHIP

I remember the pain of holding my breath every time my mom drove past a car with blue and red lights. The silence in the car as my mom held on to the steering wheel with white knuckles. It’s fresh in my mind the way the stress and anxiety were constant feelings, just as the fear of becoming an orphan was. My mother has never even gotten a speeding ticket, but I felt helpless to do anything if the cop decided to stop my mother for some reason and ask her for her immigration status. 

Every single time my mom picked me up late from school, I was held in terrifying suspense with every second that passed. The administration at my elementary school didn’t notice I cried in silence thinking of the worst—ICE had gotten my mom. I was smaller than two digits, and I knew that immigrants are quiet, trying to stay in the shadows in order to live peacefully and have a better life. We didn’t want to leave our home country, with all my toys and familiar roads, but we sacrificed everything in order to have a chance. I couldn’t wrap my mind around how easy it seemed for ICE agents to hunt down people like prey. Now, with the urgent situation happening in the USA, I am older, and I feel like I can at least do something.

I want to give a chance to students who do not feel safe going to school in the USA. No child should have to learn with fear. Therefore, I am making a scholarship at the school I graduated from. When I mentioned my intentions to the administration, they contributed to the purpose. To give as many scholarships as possible, we are opening it to 20 students. 

20 students will get a $1,000 scholarship at Academia Conari, a boutique academy with a remote personalized educational program where students are able to learn wherever they are in the comfort of home.