Growing up in a mixed status family, early on, Ashley understood the polarity between her citizenship and that of her fellow counterparts. For her, growing up meant the normalization of experiencing assimilation in a country, thus fueling her to build her identity around it. This has resulted in community-based interactions to combat personal and community concerns.

Her ultimate goal is to change the narrative people have on established U.S systems, so that not only trust can grow, but so that people build intersectionality. As a result, she has excelled in a selective enrollment school in Chicago, she has established networking practices, and has implemented a system to maintain herself advocating with her local government. Emailing and writing to local officials, whether it be her State Representative, Senators, or her Alderman; since age 12, Ashley has made it a habit to speak up to authority figures about her community concerns and other social justice issues.

Now and in the future, Ashley hopes to continue individual-level involvement to develop valuable legislation for different affected groups; or, in the alternative, influence people such that they take a stand on topics that need conversation. Defining has been the constant fear of knowing that in spite of all of the tough work, not only her’s but other’s family dynamic could be destroyed at any time. It has resulted in lack of trust in officials, not only police, but also people in positions of authority. This is because even though we are told,”the city is a Welcoming City”, the allocation of funds, resources, and time invested by organizations contradicts that statement.

Albeit discouraging, the feeling that she is battling a huge system, she would love to be able to bring sense into all those minds that actively choose silence and indifference during times of oppression. It is that silence and oppression that make US citizens like me, afraid.