[{"id":73,"date":"2021-12-01T03:00:45","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T03:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/?page_id=73"},"modified":"2021-12-03T21:25:27","modified_gmt":"2021-12-03T21:25:27","slug":"internship-with-the-institute-for-youth-in-policy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/internship-with-the-institute-for-youth-in-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Internship with the Institute for Youth in Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"File:Logo<\/p>\n

This past summer, I had the honor to write for the Institute of Youth in Policy through their publishing fellowship. During my time I wrote three articles on Social and National policy. My first article was in regards to the Texas Special Session and the impact the potential passage of voter suppression bill SB 7 would have on the Texas voting electorate. This article highlighted my ability to be able to research, summarize, and evaluate a potential bill and identify what the predicted outcome could be.<\/p>\n

The link to Article can be found here<\/a>. Below is an excerpt from the piece.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, this voting fraud alarm and the supposed need to limit voting rights is not new to the American experience. Since the founding of our Republic, white men in power have worked relentlessly to prevent various groups of people who they perceive as threats from voting. Today, the Republican Party has a predominantly white, male, and uneducated coalition that feels threatened by inexorable racial and demographic changes happening in our country. The rising voting threat of the youth vote, people of color, and women gaining political control concerns them as these groups do not value white power. Thus, the Republican Party\u2019s perpetuation of the voting fraud lie is an effort to secure specific electoral outcomes that preserves their power during their long descent into demographic minority status.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

My second article analyzed President Biden’s inaction in terms of supporting the passage of expansive voting rights legislation. The article goes on to target not only why, but how his direct lack of inaction is a threat to our democracy and directly cripples the power of minority voting blocks. Writing this article was very exciting for me because, during my research phase, I actually had the honor to interview former Presidential and Senate candidate Beto O’Rorurke and former HUD Secretary and Presidential Candidate Julian Castro.<\/p>\n

The link to Article can be found here<\/a>. Below is an excerpt from the piece.<\/p>\n

\n

“I would argue that most of the weight of saving America\u2019s voting rights falls on President Biden\u2019s shoulders. His long Senate history and his connections in the Senate imbued him with the unique experience and skillset to gain the support of reluctant Senators, such as Democratic holdouts Sinema and Manchin<\/a>, for a voting rights bill. President Biden\u2019s lack of public pressure on the two Senators is frustrating to many as his support could influence their reelection chances. Senators must be forced to publicly choose between preserving Senate power customs, like the filibuster, and the very essence of American democracy. Although those seats are crucial to maintaining the Democratic Party\u2019s majority in the Senate, without the passage of a sweeping voter expansion bill, there may never again be a Democratic Party majority in Washington, DC. Therefore, Biden must find a way to \u2018carrot and stick\u2019 these Senators to disband the filibuster and pass voting rights legislation that will ensure the voting rights of all Americans.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Finally, my last article took a turn away from voting rights and onto an issue, I am just as passionate about. In the article titled “Fiji, University of Lincoln – Nebraska, and Sexual Assaults’ on College Campuses: What Can be Done?”, I discussed the issues surrounding not only Fiji at the University of Lincon – Nebraska but also the issue of sexual assault on college campuses nationwide. The article took direct aim at Greek Life and the consistent failure of not only schools but the national organizations who fail to hold sexual predators accountable.<\/p>\n

The link to Article can be found here<\/a>. Below is an excerpt from the piece.<\/p>\n

\n

“Sexual assault is a problem that has plagued every generation of young women in history\u2014when will we finally stand up and say enough is enough? It is unacceptable that our society treats educational institutions differently<\/a> than other organizations and sectors (such as corporations or workplaces) in terms of responsibility in enabling sexual assault. Young women are the most vulnerable during the time they spend on educational campuses. This is because most women on such campuses are young and tend to be powerless. Therefore, due to the inexcusable inaction by universities, colleges, and high schools, this epidemic will continue to disproportionately affect younger generations of women. However, in order to see a change in this trend, sexual assault victims must do their part to change the status quo by taking action. Specifically, it is time for Congress and state legislatures nationwide to do more to hold schools accountable for failing to report sexual assaults to the police in a timely manner. Furthermore, governmental action is needed to motivate, if not require, schools to do more\u2014within the confines of respecting legitimate rights of perpetrators\u2014to identify, and remove all sexual predators from campuses. It is also time for laws to be passed that clarify and render uniform, public reporting procedures so that all students can be informed of the incidences of sexual assaults on every school campus across the nation.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This past summer, I had the honor to write for the Institute of Youth in Policy through their publishing fellowship. During my time I wrote three articles on Social and National policy. My first article was in regards to the Texas Special Session and the impact the potential passage of voter suppression bill SB 7 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3385,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-73","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3385"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/73\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":66,"date":"2021-11-04T06:31:14","date_gmt":"2021-11-04T06:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/?page_id=66"},"modified":"2021-11-04T07:00:26","modified_gmt":"2021-11-04T07:00:26","slug":"internship-with-powered-by-people","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/internship-with-powered-by-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Internship with Powered by People"},"content":{"rendered":"

My office, Powered by Youth and Powered by People is a Political Action Committee that is focused on State Level and National Level policies and voter registration. The goal of the organization is to register all the unregistered voters in Texas between now and 2022 and hopefully ensure the passage of voter expansion bills and protect voters against voter suppression bills. The office structure of reporting is Beto O\u2019Rourke and Cynthia Cano running Powered by People and Powered by Youth as a whole and then the paid staff on the Powered by People Team including the social media director Jaqueline Westman. Then within Powered by Youth the power falls to Alexandria King and I, the co-directors of the twenty people executive team.<\/p>\n

This past semester, my co-director and I have assigned ambassadors to register voters on five college campuses across the state of Texas and have designed and implemented a phone bank on the Freedom to Vote Act with over twenty college campuses nationwide. Our goal for the ambassador program was to begin college outreach especially on campuses historically left out of the voting process. This included Texas A&M University, University of Houston, Stephen F Austin University, Texas Southern University, and the University of Texas.<\/p>\n

On those college campuses, we have facilitated ambassadors in three voter registration drives and have two more planned for the upcoming month. In terms of the phone bank, our goal was to have youth across the country calling to pass the Freedom to Vote Act in the Senate, while we were hopeful our efforts would help the bill\u2019s passage, it did inevitably fail due to the filibuster.<\/p>\n

My daily duties are ambassador outreach which includes keeping them engaged with our program and other organizational outreach to promote growth and connections within the state of Texas. This directly supports the original goal of not only Powered by Youth but myself as well. I have been using my growing skills to spread awareness about the program and support internal and external growth about the program. Overall, I feel as though I have come a long way in the past few months, and I am excited to learn more as a potential transition may arise if Beto decides to run for Governor of Texas.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Picture with Jaqueline Westman PxP Social Media Coordinator and PxY Executive Member Tobin Wood on the final day of the Poor Peoples Campaign March in Austin Texas on June 20th.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"

Picture with a majority of our Powered by Youth Executive Team in Houston on June 13th. This was following a rally where we had over 30 sign-ups to our Powered by Youth ambassador program.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Picture with my parents in Texarkana on June 11th after I got the opportunity to introduce Beto O’Rourke at his Drive for Democracy Event.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My office, Powered by Youth and Powered by People is a Political Action Committee that is focused on State Level and National Level policies and voter registration. The goal of the organization is to register all the unregistered voters in Texas between now and 2022 and hopefully ensure the passage of voter expansion bills and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3385,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-66","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/66","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3385"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/66\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":58,"date":"2021-04-29T03:52:42","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T03:52:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/?page_id=58"},"modified":"2021-04-29T03:52:42","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T03:52:42","slug":"freshman-year-reflection","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/freshman-year-reflection\/","title":{"rendered":"Freshman Year Reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following the end of my freshman year at American University, I have seen a lot of growth. The past two semesters, especially in the midst of a pandemic and online classes have been far from how anyone could have envisioned their first year of college going. However, as time passes and I look back I realize that with the help of the SPA Leadership program I have overcome the adversity that the pandemic presented, and still optimized my time as a student at American University. Through the leadership program my confidence, leadership, and initiative have improved tremendously. I feel empowered and enlightened to take on this crazy world we are living in and become the change I want to see in the world.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following the end of my freshman year at American University, I have seen a lot of growth. The past two semesters, especially in the midst of a pandemic and online classes have been far from how anyone could have envisioned their first year of college going. However, as time passes and I look back I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3385,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-58","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/58","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3385"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/58\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":53,"date":"2021-04-29T03:44:27","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T03:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/?page_id=53"},"modified":"2021-04-29T04:02:36","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T04:02:36","slug":"spa-leadership-education-and-empowerment-team-project","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/spa-leadership-education-and-empowerment-team-project\/","title":{"rendered":"SPA Leadership Education and Empowerment Team Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

Description: The School of Public Affairs Education and Empowerment group at American University is raising money to help empower DC student-athletes from underprivileged communities!<\/p>\n

Spring Action Plan: As a member of the SPA Leadership and empowerment group, we worked together to develop this action plan. The goal of our project was to help support a local DC Non-Profit in their desire to help local DC Students. We ended up partnering with SOUL or Student-Athletes Organized to help empower DC student-athletes from underprivileged communities.<\/p>\n

Team Dynamic During Implementation: During the implementation part of our project not much had changed in regards to the different semesters. We split up the work as evenly as possible and were always willing to help each other in case someone needed it. We were supportive, uplifting, and empowering leaders who were determined to reach our goal of raising $500 total dollars in total for SOUL to receive. Ultimately, this dynamic and successful team during implementation led us to successfully reaching our goal!<\/p>\n

Results: We ended up raising $440 on GoFundMe and $66 worth of equipment SOUL was in need of. More importantly, we were able to help many underprivileged kids get the opportunity to participate in sports, become more educated, and become more well-rounded individuals that may themselves one day give back to the DC community!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Description: The School of Public Affairs Education and Empowerment group at American University is raising money to help empower DC student-athletes from underprivileged communities! Spring Action Plan: As a member of the SPA Leadership and empowerment group, we worked together to develop this action plan. The goal of our project was to help support a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3385,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-53","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/53","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3385"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/53\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":50,"date":"2021-04-29T03:26:58","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T03:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/?page_id=50"},"modified":"2021-04-29T03:55:29","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T03:55:29","slug":"political-polarization-and-voter-turnout-works-cited","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/political-polarization-and-voter-turnout-works-cited\/","title":{"rendered":"Political Polarization and Voter Turnout Works Sample"},"content":{"rendered":"

The context for the Excerpt<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The excerpt I have attached below is from an essay I submitted for my College 101 Writing Seminar class. It was assigned with us with freedom of topic, required an annotated bibliography, and had to be at least 10 pages long. As you can see in the PDF below, I expanded well beyond those minimums, as the topic is one I am very passionate about. The topic of Political Polarization and Voter Turnout was a topic I wanted to write about because I want to eventually work in a field that limits the impacts polarization has on our society and voting electorate. I wanted to know\u00a0how\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0why\u00a0<\/em>polarization and voter turnout trends positively correlate and what implications this will have on future presidential elections.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Excerpt<\/strong><\/h2>\n

“For Trump, tarnishing Hillary’s reputation was the best strategy in this climate to win the election. His ability to make her appear like the worst of the two was a winning strategy as he just needed to chip off her Democratic majority and scare enough independents into turning out against her. Ultimately, this strategy was successful and led to him becoming the U.S.\u2019s 45th president. This is the clearest national electoral example of how to win by increasing voter turnout, by using political partisanship to drive moderate, seemingly ideologically unaligned voters into focusing on voting against who they disliked the most.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, as time went on and the 2024 election cycle came about, Trump had made many major mistakes that never allowed his approval rating to get to a majority of the population. When Trump left office, in January 2021 his disapproval rating was a whopping 57.4% (Silver, 2021). This set him up for failure in the 2024 cycle because a majority of voters already knew they did not like him. Biden, on the other hand, due to his familial ties with the relatively popular 44th President of the United States Barack Obama, led the public to have a relatively positive, non-negative perception of him. Whereas Trump continued to make mistakes, in regards to Covid-19, Black Lives Matter Movements, and other defining moments of the year 2020. Biden ran a low-key, scandal-free campai<\/span>gn. Overall, an incredible 56% of voters cast their votes for Biden because he was not Trump, and there went the election(Gil<\/span>berstadt et al., 2020).<\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately, what the tale of the past two elections reflects is that voters are using their ideologies, and therefore identities, not to vote in support of candidates, but rather against them. As found by Pew Research, \u201cmore than half of Democrats (55%) say the Republican Party makes them \u201cafraid,\u201d while 49% of Republicans say the same about the Democratic Party\u201d (<\/span>Partisanship and Political Animosity in 2016<\/span><\/i>, 2019). This new process of politicizing elections to vote against parties or candidates is a reason why polarization has increased: fear and hate are the driving factors. People are more likely to turn out and vote out of fear due to the fact that fear engenders stronger feelings than liking a candidate. Fear and hate also have a hand in making a voter less likely to be open to changing their mind or opinion on a candidate or given topic (<\/span>The Most Powerful Emotion in Marketing May Surprise You \u2014 and More Brands Need to Tap into It, According to an Expert in Social Influencer Marketing<\/span><\/i>, 2019).<\/span><\/p>\n

This is incredibly important to acknowledge and apply to future elections. Candidates who want to win at the national level, especially the presidency, must now work to mobilize the fear in voters against the other candidate in order to win. This method will not be leaving our political system anytime soon, due to the usefulness of it. As much as many voters would like politics to \u2018return to normal and for candidates to be respectful towards each other, it is no longer a winning strategy. Whoever runs against Joe Biden in 2024 (he has already announced he would run) will need to mobilize the fear of ideologically Republican-leaning voters in order to beat him. This will be a challenging task to muster due to the success that Joe Biden has had to lead us out of the Covid-19 pandemic and the worst recession since the 2008 Housing Bubble burst. The days of nice politicking are over, and for better or for worse, at least on a national political level. President Trump\u2019s fear stroking tactics worked and have proven the massive success it can have at a national level.\u00a0 Therefore, we must be prepared for much more partisan animus to come between voters, politicians, and political parties in the years to come (<\/span>Partisan Antipathy: More Intense, More Personal<\/span><\/i>, 2019)”<\/span><\/p>\n

To read the full paper, I have attached the link below:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1IWn2hcCkc4YZmNfZLNmS233085X-RKcT8dRTLXH-8Ps\/edit?usp=sharing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The context for the Excerpt The excerpt I have attached below is from an essay I submitted for my College 101 Writing Seminar class. It was assigned with us with freedom of topic, required an annotated bibliography, and had to be at least 10 pages long. As you can see in the PDF below, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3385,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-50","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/50","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3385"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/50\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":19,"date":"2020-07-06T20:07:44","date_gmt":"2020-07-06T20:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/spatemplate\/?page_id=19"},"modified":"2021-04-29T03:26:20","modified_gmt":"2021-04-29T03:26:20","slug":"work-sample","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/work-sample\/","title":{"rendered":"Title IX Work Sample"},"content":{"rendered":"

Context for the Excerpt<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The excerpt I have attached below is from an essay I submitted for my Dual Credit English 1302 class. It was assigned with us with freedom of topic, required an annotated bibliography, and had to be at least five pages. As you can see in the PDF below, I expanded well beyond those minimums, as the topic is one I am very passionate about. The topic of Sexual Assault was a topic I wanted to write about because one of my friends had a rattling experience with a boy at her school that left me angry and disappointed that the legal system refused to hold her assaulter accountable. I wanted to know <\/span>why<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>how <\/span><\/i>school districts in this day and age still support the assaulter over the victim, and in my excerpt and full essay below, I explore those questions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Excerpt<\/strong><\/h2>\n

“Institutions refusing to take action, are leaving young women exposed to sexual violence
\nand hindering them from achieving an equal education as compared with their male counterparts.
\nSexual assault predators start their conquest of women in high school, continue on at
\nuniversities and colleges, and then they carry it forward into the real world, exposing all
\ngenerations of women to such victimization. Sexual assault knows no boundaries, as it does not
\noccur in just the South or North, nor only the East or West; it happens in every state, affecting
\nevery community, in some way shape or form (Sexual Assault on College Campuses, Broder). It
\nhas taken place at Cornell, Duke, U of Alabama, U of Texas, UCLA, Stanford, U of Minnesota,
\nU of Chicago and at all the places of learning in between (Pending Cases Currently Under
\nInvestigation, Campus Sexual Assault Under Investigation). The problem will continue to
\nperpetuate and victimize future generations of women unless something more is done.<\/p>\n

Many people do not realize how seriously sexual assault can affect their loved ones until
\nit does. This realization struck me when one of my long-time friends, who has come to be more
\nlike a sister to me, went to a party and was sexually assaulted by a boy in her theater class. I
\nremember picking her up the day after it happened and being at a loss for words as to how
\nsomeone could do such a horrible thing to her, but then the loss of words turned to anger. Who
\nthought they could do something like that and get away with it? What type of person thought he
\nwas entitled to do such an action without consequence? I couldn\u2019t fathom the idea. As more time
\npasses, and I hear similar stories from my friends and dig into more research, it has become more
\nclear that the reason why they think they can get away with it is that more often than not, they do
\nget away with it.<\/p>\n

The boy who sexually assaulted my friend did get away with it. Even after admitting to it,
\nhe was still enabled in his actions by receiving the lead in the school play at their high school.
\nAfter reporting the sexual assault, my friend was threatened by a teacher at the school \u201cto stop
\ntalking about [the sexual assault] if she wants to get invited back\u201d to the theater program.
\nShockingly, this same teacher thought the perpetrator was just \u201ca troubled kid\u201d who \u201cwas in love
\nwith her,\u201d as if those are valid reasons to acquit the behavior. The teacher never reported it to the
\nadministration even though that is the protocol. Ultimately, the director threatened my friend
\nwith removal from the theater program. The response to the situation was to punish the victim,
\nnot the perpetrator, which perpetuates the idea that he can get away with it. Following these
\nthreats, my friend\u2019s family tried to get in contact with the school to address the situation. The
\nschool and the district just ignored her family\u2019s calls and emails making it challenging to hold
\nthem accountable for the assault and threats from the teacher in the theater program. Shortly
\nafter, my friend withdrew from that school district and enrolled elsewhere. The sad reality is that
\nwas not the first of such incidents to occur at that school, and unless someone intervenes, it
\nwon\u2019t be the last.”<\/p>\n

To read the full paper, I have attached the link below:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1ElWgZF4sua-dQmfSmAoB3m9BjRG6A4Q0GMgk2CQA71c\/edit?usp=sharing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Context for the Excerpt The excerpt I have attached below is from an essay I submitted for my Dual Credit English 1302 class. It was assigned with us with freedom of topic, required an annotated bibliography, and had to be at least five pages. As you can see in the PDF below, I expanded well […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3385,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-19","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3385"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":16,"date":"2020-07-06T20:07:44","date_gmt":"2020-07-06T20:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/spatemplate\/?page_id=16"},"modified":"2021-12-01T02:58:45","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T02:58:45","slug":"about-me","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/","title":{"rendered":"About Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sierra<\/p>\n

Hi! My name is Sierra Rodriguez and I am a sophomore political science major at American University, located in Washington D.C. Starting from the beginning of my journey at American University, this fall.\u00a0<\/span>Being at AU has allowed me to explore the field of political science, thereby further developing my passion for political activism and political campaigning. Fostering the development of this passion has led me to search for new internships to help diversify my experience in the political world. It has also cemented the desire within me to join the crazy polarizing world of politics, and hopefully find a way to make a difference.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Through my opportunities to work on a multitude of campaigns, I have discovered that I have a natural ability to communicate with voters of all ages, genders, and races. I have been able to take the conversations with these individuals, and translate the conversations into messaging the imperative need for voting. Those conversations most frequently end in registering said individuals to vote or create a plan about how to vote. During my next few years at AU, I hope to further develop this skill and learn how to most efficiently connect with voters, and hopefully go on to found or join a non-partisan voter registration campaign to help engage more individuals in our democracy.<\/span><\/p>\n

LinkedIn Profile<\/a><\/p>\n

High School Digital Portfolio<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi! My name is Sierra Rodriguez and I am a sophomore political science major at American University, located in Washington D.C. Starting from the beginning of my journey at American University, this fall.\u00a0Being at AU has allowed me to explore the field of political science, thereby further developing my passion for political activism and political […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3385,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-16","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3385"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":13,"date":"2020-07-06T20:07:44","date_gmt":"2020-07-06T20:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/spatemplate\/?page_id=13"},"modified":"2022-08-06T01:56:34","modified_gmt":"2022-08-06T01:56:34","slug":"resume","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edspace.american.edu\/sr3762b\/resume\/","title":{"rendered":"Resume"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sierra Rodriguez<\/b><\/p>\n

American University, Washington DC \u00b7 srodwork@gmail.com \u00b7 214-718-4219<\/span><\/p>\n

EDUCATION<\/b><\/p>\n

EDUCATION<\/b><\/p>\n

American University<\/b>, Washington, DC<\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0May 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

Bachelor of Arts in Political Science<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Honors: GPA: 3.932, Dean’s List; Community-Based Research Scholar; School of Public Affairs Leadership program; Athlete- Former Division I Diver on American University\u2019s Women\u2019s Diving team, All American Scholar; Member, Delta Gamma Sorority<\/span><\/p>\n

Relevant Courses and Projects<\/span><\/i>:\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n