Congratulations to Gassendina, Class of 2019, awardee of our first ever Elaine Schear “Voice of the First Generation” Scholarship for Creative Writing. Gassendina is enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she’ll be majoring in international relations with the goal of becoming a U.S. foreign service officer:
“If we took the time to learn what life is like in other people’s shoes in different parts of the world, we would find some connections with them; we could all stand together united. That’s what I want to do for a living, restore relationships between nations and restore empathy. We shouldn’t argue with people and feel diminished once they share a different opinion. We are sharing our opinions and stories to be enlightened and to enlighten others.”