Leslie Pinero - $5,000 winner of the NCLR-Best Buy Emerging Latino Leaders Scholarship
Leslie Pinero is one of the winners of the NCLR-Best Buy Emerging Latino Leaders Scholarship. Leslie received a one-time scholarship of $5,000. All five winners will be featured on the Líderes website.
Leslie Pinero is currently a senior at Oakcrest High School in Mays Landing, New Jersey. She will be attending Penn State in the fall. Her high school has become a second home to her. By serving as class president for four years, she has become comfortable as a leader who always reaches for her dreams.
Leslie also served as Vice President for New Jersey’s State Board and has initiated/created F.L.A.C: Future Leaders of Atlantic County, a program where other students in Atlantic County can grow as leaders and participate in the community’s government process. The last four years of her life have been the best, most rewarding so far. She is very excited to see what future endeavors await her at college and is ready for all of life’s unpredictable, amazing challenges.
Leslie's essay
How can you use your leadership experiences in high school and/or your community to help broaden opportunities for future Latino youth? Please use specific examples of your leadership skills and experiences.
Every opportunity will be taken. Equality is an overdue struggle our nation is still fighting to overcome. As a young Hispanic woman, naturally I have the unbreakable desire and strength to stand up in this fight. However, as a realist, I understand that I, alone, cannot change the country in one day, with one action. Steps must be taken forward, inch by inch, with a proud head held high that never looks back in order for beneficial change to occur. And that is exactly what I have done for the last four years and what I will continue to do for the rest of my life.
My freshmen year in high school, I became the President of my class. I knew I could make a difference and my mentor, Mr. Joe Costal, helped light the spark I had inside to start me on my leading path. My sophomore year, I was again voted as class president. Running against the cute jock, the popular girl, or even the hilarious class clown was intimidating but my class saw the leadership skills I had and knew I would tend to their needs best. My student council advisor then approached me and asked if I would want to run for State Office for the New Jersey Association of Student Councils. With my experience and passion, I immediately accepted. During my junior year, I once again was elected as class president from my peers and had been chosen to run for the State Office position of Vice President. When representing a diverse state like New Jersey, I understood that winning would open the eyes of younger Latinos-girls and boys, to follow their dreams and know that if they have goals, they must do whatever it takes to achieve them. I wanted to help them realize their ethnicity should be no deciding factor for what they could become. All of the student council presidents of New Jersey voted and I was elected as the 2008 Vice President for the State of New Jersey.
In the beginning of 2008 I was also inspired by political women leaders to join the fight for equality in sex and race. Because of my passion for the cause, I was asked to be appointed a position on the Atlantic County Advisory Commission of Women. This board represents all groups of people from Hispanic to black, from disabled to the abused. Through their resources and skills, we created a vision I kept close in the back of my mind. I wanted to create a youth leadership commission to encourage the younger generation to get involved in their community’s government and political process and to not feel inferior to the stereotypical leading white male. It is now known as F.L.A.C- Future Leaders of Atlantic County.
My father is Puerto Rican and left when I was only a few months old. I live in a development most of my town considers to be dangerous, run-down, dirty, and/or crime-ridden. I personally do not view my living conditions to be so low. In fact, I am grateful for what my mother is able to provide us as a single parent. The reason I describe my neighborhood is because, in school, I have created a name for myself- a name people look up to and admire. Apparently, I have gained the image as the model student younger children strive to become. The funny thing is that as soon as people find out where I come from and where I live outside of the Oakcrest halls, they are utterly shocked and can’t picture me living in the area I do. Part of me tends to feel insecure and question whether or not I do live with poor conditions but then I am always reminded that where I come from does not change who I am as a leader.
Every time a Hispanic student who comes from a similar background or neighborhood like me looks me in the eye, I am overwhelmed with pride of where I come from and who I am. It gives me strength to continue fighting the fight for Equality in this world. I hope I give other poor minorities the encouragement they need to not feel slighted or inferior to compete against others in any goal they wish to achieve. The shade of a person’s skin makes no difference to the power and heart they have inside. One day, the world will be equal and all humans, male, female, White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, will live in a society where character will reign above all else.
