Campus a

1. Why is service important to you and this campus? This community?

Service plays a constant role in my life, even at a subconscious level. Whether it’s tutoring a friend in a class I have taken or showing a lost visitor around campus, service is important to me because it gives me a chance to demonstrate my unique knowledge or skills in a way that helps me feel both unique and accomplished. The Annika Rodriguez Scholarship Program has served as a foundation for service here at Washington University. Through this program I found out about countless opportunities to participate in service events both within the Washington University community as well as Saint Louis in general. For example, through this program I started to participate in Strive for College, a national organization started by a Rodriguez Scholar a few years ago, where I have been given the opportunity to meet with and tutor a local high school student with who is very interested in attending college but has no knowledge of the application process and whose school does not provide enough guidance in this area, and instead of having one person dedicated to his future, his counselor has over one hundred other students to look out for. This opportunity for me seemed like a no-brainer: I had just applied to college less than a few months before participating in this organization, and I had been given so much advice from my parents, teachers, and college counselors that it seemed selfish for me to pass up such an easy opportunity to make such a large, positive impact on an individual in my community’s life. Little did I know how much fun I would also have in participating in such a wonderful program with some of my best friends, and I never expected to bond so closely with my mentee within a matter of weeks, and we have reached a point where our conversations are by no means restricted to just the college process anymore.

2. What do you expect to gain from being on Executive Council?

I expect that...