Meet Mia, a high school student who is transforming her school's leadership landscape. Discover her inspiring journey from joining the Latino Youth Leadership Group to becoming a vocal advocate for her community. Mia shares how she became the representation she never saw growing up, and why it's crucial for voices like hers to be heard in decision-making spaces. Her insight highlights the importance of involvement and representation in shaping not just school policies but also broader community and national discussions.
Transcript:
Leading By Example: Representing our Communities
"In my school specifically, there's a majority of not colored people in leadership positions such as class presidents, ASB, just in general our leaders.
So in my freshman year I was actually invited to join a group called Latino Youth Leadership Group, and I didn't know what that would mean for me. I wasn't really aware that you should be involved in school and that like how to be involved in school.
But as soon as I learned, I was just like, I was like, yes, yes, yes, you know, and I do that because I want to represent my community, because I never had that representation for myself. Seeing someone Hispanic, like go to college, graduate, graduate high school, I never saw that. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to be the representation that I never had.
So that's exactly what I did. With Latino Youth Leadership Group. I strove to have my voice be heard, and I joined other positions of leadership. So my voice had to be heard because you have to put in that work in order to be able to have your voice heard in any circumstance. But for me, I had to work twice as hard for those things.
Do it not only for yourself, but for your community? Because you have to be at those tables of discussion. People are going to manage your school, your country, your county without you having a voice. And that's why it's like important people. That's why people say it's important to vote, because it is. It's important to have your voice heard, because if not, they're going to do decisions that you might not like in the future and it's going to affect you whether you think it won't." -Mia O.