Education for Community Empowerment by Anahi

Education for Community Empowerment by Anahi - July 2019 Scholarship Essay

Growing up as an Ecuadorian immigrant in New York City (NYC), education became the driving force for myself and my family to uproot ourselves to this new country. Aware of the sacrifices my family and I made to come to the U.S. and have access to exceptional education, I took every opportunity I could to expand my learning. In this journey, I gained a passion to using my education to elevate the voices of my community against environmental and social injustices.

In 2014, I interned with the New York League of Conservation Voters, and came to learn that my first home in NYC, an apartment in Bushwick in the Brooklyn/Queens border, neighbored a newly declared Superfund site, and deemed as the most toxic site in New York State with dangerously high levels of dioxin. I sat speechless at the news, horrified. I’ll never forget the realization that hit me in this moment: communities like mine, low income, communities of color, were often the ones in the frontlines of environmental injustices. Very few people from my community in the Ridgewood/Bushwick area heard the news that our homes were near this site. Although information through the EPA was readily available online, it’s a reality that many families are not actively searching for the toxicity of their neighborhoods, handling multiple jobs and taking care of their families and other immediate concerns, and many not even knowing the English language that this information was distributed in. If I hadn’t worked at NYLCV, I wonder when I would’ve learned about the toxicity of my old neighborhood, if at all. I am passionate about expanding my knowledge of policy and social activism through education because I want to learn the skills to empower myself and communities on the frontlines of environmental injustices to become agents of change for healthier, greener environments.

This passion led me to undertake an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies. I was a Doris Duke Conservation Scholar at the University of Washington from 205-2016, where I spent time in Washington State in urban spaces like Seattle and in the Olympic Peninsula where I interned at the Quinault Indian Nation’s Department of Natural Resources, learning about different conservation issues in the state and how policy in native and urban spaces played a role in empowering communities. Upon completing my undergraduate education, I returned to NYC to work at a community center in the Bronx to increase access to green outdoor spaces and tackle food insecurity issues in the community. I served over 17,000 hours as the Community Outreach and Volunteer Coordinator at the Kingsbridge Heights Community Center (KHCC), a community non-profit organization as an Americorps/Civic Corps Member. During my time at KHCC, I developed strong partnerships with other organizations in the city to ensure we were providing as many resources to our community as possible, like finding resources for our food pantry. I developed a volunteer program for our departments with a focus on environmental stewardship, hosting various volunteer events to strengthen our community garden, teaching gardening skills to families and our students, and beautify our urban trees through a partnership with the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation. During this time, I also served as the NYC Outings Leader for Latino Outdoors, an organization that seeks to inspire, connect, and engage Latinx communities in the outdoors to ensure that our history, heritage, and leadership are valued and represented. Today, I am the NYC Program Coordinator for Latino Outdoors, continuing the work to bring more outdoor experiences to individuals from all over the city.

I vividly remember the helplessness I felt when I heard the news of the Superfund site in my neighborhood. It was anger, confusion, but most importantly, a newfound passion to ensure I never feel this helplessness again, to learn how to be an advocate for my community. A passion for education for me means having a passion to fuel my pursuits. Education has become a way for me to empower myself and in turn, empower my community. My passion for education to serve my community will continue as I start my new journey into graduate school.