To the members of Congress:
I write this open letter to you because I still have faith in our Constitution’s system of checks and balances. I still believe that you have it in you to stop the madness and make decisions that will truly benefit this country and all of its citizens. I am hoping that you will not let me and so many others down.
I recently read a Washington Post article that outlined some of the proposed changes in the near-final version of the first full education budget. While these figures are still preliminary, I am outraged that essential programs that provide after-school services, adult basic literacy instruction, arts education, child care for low-income parents in college, mental health services, Advanced Placement, and other services are receiving deep cuts and/or being defunded altogether. However, in this letter, I want to address one specific proposed cut: Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). In fact, I want to put a face on these cuts. Let me tell you a little bit about myself.
I am a public servant. More specifically, I am a first generation, low-income, ethnic minority, tax-paying public servant. In fact, at 29 years old, I have been paying taxes for half my life as I have been working at least part-time since I was 14 years old. I always have excelled academically, graduating with honors from both high school and college, but more importantly, I always have engaged in efforts to support my community. I consider these efforts more important than academics because after you read more about me you may be tempted to believe that I have pulled myself up by my bootstraps.
However, my achievements and accomplishments are not my own. They are the achievements of my village — my community of family, friends, teachers, and mentors that have supported me, guided me, and cheered me on. As such, it is my duty to give back to the communities that have given so much to me. Academic success would be nothing without the skills and heart necessary to thrive in our society.
This duty to give back to my community has been a guiding force in my life. In high school alone, I racked up almost 1,000 hours of community service. In college, not only did I complete a minimum of 30 community service hours per quarter, but I led a state and city recognized outreach program that provides mentorship and college guidance to 120 at-risk high school sophomores and juniors from the Los Angeles Unified School District. Upon my graduation from college, I went on to serve two years as a full-time AmeriCorps volunteer where I completed over 3,000 service hours in a high-poverty community. These experiences shaped my career aspirations, as it was through my service that I realized I wanted to build my future career as an educator supporting students who would come after me.
Today I write to you as an Ivy League graduate having received my M.S.Ed. in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education (GSE). I now serve as an associate director at the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions, where I work full-time. I am also a part-time doctoral student at GSE and part-time master’s student at Penn Law.
