Dulce Guillen

I enjoyed sharing my experiences with the middle school students. It always brings me so much joy to see them so excited about school, and even online, they asked some exceptional questions. I hope that this was a lasting experience for them as future first-generation college students.

This year, PathMakers helped to coordinate the "I Stand with Immigrants Day" tabling event in Evans. As a DACA recipient, it was very meaningful to be able to share a bit of my story as well as to help inform people on how to be effective allies. It was surprising to hear about some of the misinformation some people had picked up before coming to Agnes, but it was great to be able to have an open discussion about it.

The Neighborhood Clean-up is an event where we gather in a group of about 12 volunteers suited up with masks, gloves, and trash-bags to pick up any and all trash in our neighborhood. We have lots of trees and woods in my neighborhood where people toss everything from gatorade bottles to candy wrappers to glass bottles, so back when I was in high school I started participating in this day-long (8 AM- 2 PM) clean up with other families. Considering there is an elementary school and middle school just up the road, we were concerned that kids could not only pick up the bad habit of littering but could get hurt from accidentally stepping on broken glass, for instance.

While it is not something I am used to sharing, it felt refreshing to be able to share my experience as a DACA recipient and as a current college student. It has been a long time since I had shared my experience, including all of the ups and downs, that occurred during high school and into college based on my legal status. All in all, it was an honor to open up and to hear others share their stories of resilience, as well.

For summer 2021, I was allowed to work alongside Dr. Leslie Rubin, a developmental pediatrician. I was able to serve as a medical scribe where I was able to jot down notes as needed during each appointment. Likewise, I was asked to serve as an interpreter from time to time which helped me to exercise my Spanish-speaking skills in a medical context. In both situations, I was able to interact with patients and parents which helped me to grow the skills I will need as a future physician.

I thoroughly enjoyed serving as a volunteer notetaker. Not only did this responsibility encourage me to make sure I thoroughly understood the content but it allowed me to try different notetaking techniques to see what the best way to present the information was. While I did not know who would be looking at these notes, it was fulfilling to know I could lend a helping hand.

This year, I served as a co-director of the GEMS STEM Day along with Alex Lombardo after having an awesome experience serving on the GEMS STEM Day Planning Committee last year. The goal of this event was to give a group of high school seniors the chance to have a first-hand look at what it means to be a college student in the STEM field, and they were also able to gain some insight into what college is like in general. We began planning in January by making flyers, posting in the Irvine to recruit volunteers, and reaching out to professors to see who would be willing to host activities, and figuring out the exact details to make sure everything ran smoothly.

This experience spanned over approximately six weeks. I initially began researching the logistics of taking part in this nationwide collection of jeans that would go to homeless shelters for teenagers over winter break. Once I had more details about the project, I brought it to the attention of my PathMakers executive board and advisors to see if they would be willing to help me allocate duties and promote this cause on a campus-wide scale. Once they gave me the green light, I provided information to the non-profit who was hosting the denim drive in collaboration with Aeropostale, and they were able to send me flyers and a large poster that I decided to display in Alston. We also personalized flyers that we posted on our social media and shared updates at each of our general body meetings for PathMakers. Fortunately, we were able to collect a total of 50 pairs of jeans that we went to drop off at Aeropostale on February 18th. Initially, we were going to drop them off sooner (February 15th), but there was a bit of a hiccup along the way which I suppose is part of the process of navigating this larger scaled project. :) The staff at Aeropostale were over the moon to see the number of jeans we collected, and they were in charge of packing them up to be sent out to their designated locations.