Eighteen-year-old Andrea Pardo arrived with her family in the U.S. three years ago from Chichuahua, Mexico. In that short period of time, Andrea has become an advocate and an activist for immigrant issues, while encouraging her fellow students to share their opinions on issues that affect them directly. She has researched policy issues and utilized a range of communication channels to educate her community about issues, prepared and led groups of students and parents to travel to the state capital to speak out on these issues, and successfully advocated on behalf of legislation to support immigrant students in the state.

 

A recent graduate of Wyandotte High School in inner-city Kansas City, Kansas, Andrea was nominated by El Centro, Inc. for the Dorothy Richardson Award. El Centro provides community development and social service programs and policy advocacy and issue organizing. Andrea came to the organization while conducting policy research, and she quickly became a leading volunteer force. Executive Director Ian Bautista recalls Andrea's “perseverance, creativity, charisma, and passion for justice,” and her “rare gift to bring out more in others than they ever knew existed.” “The commitment that she—and the students she organized—demonstrated during her recent legislative advocacy work is evidence to why Kansans should invest in the futures of immigrant students in our state,” Bautista added. “An aspiring architecture student, Andrea will be a shining example of a physical and social community builder in our community for many years to come.”

 

Andrea will be a freshman at Kansas State University this fall.