Meet 4 Local Freedom and Citizenship Students Graduating High School This Spring (Some Heading to Columbia!)

The Freedom and Citizenship academic enrichment program at Columbia has graduated nearly 400 students since it began in 2009.

By
Kelly Moffitt
May 27, 2022

As we transition from May to June, we also move from celebrating our college grads to cheering on our local high school students who are set to walk across the stage this month, walk out into the world, and change it for the better. This year, we are highlighting four local scholars who are finishing Columbia's Freedom and Citizenship college seminar and academic enrichment program. They are all headed to college and two will start at Columbia College in the fall!

Since its inception in 2009, Freedom and Citizenship has graduated nearly 400 high school students. The program introduces them to college-level work in the humanities and prepares them for lives as informed, responsible citizens. It started as a partnership between Columbia's Center for American Studies and the Roger Lehecka Double Discovery Center and has only grown since. 

Students attend a free four-week residential program in July where they take an intensive seminar course on political philosophy taught by professors. The summer program is followed by a year-long civic leadership project where students research contemporary political issues and develop advocacy initiatives under the supervision of undergraduate teaching assistants. In the autumn, students also benefit from help with college applications from the Double Discovery Center and mentoring from Columbia College undergraduates.

While applications for the summer 2022 Freedom and Citizenship seminar are closed, you can keep an eye on this space to apply in future years

The graduates featured below have a great vision for the future. Please enjoy their stories. Congratulations, Class of 2022!

Joanna Cuatlayo

Graduating from University Heights High School

Joanna Cuatlayo

What was your favorite part of the Freedom and Citizenship experience?

The Freedom and Citizenship (F&C) experience allowed me to fall in love with learning all over again. After being in quarantine for over 18 months, it was hard for me to have the same eagerness for writing and reading. Being in F&C has given me the opportunity to be spontaneous with my education. Through reading the various passages that I was not accustomed to, I felt myself getting out of the educational slump I was in. For the first time in a while, I was more than excited to read, write, and be surrounded by minds that were ready to speak. Going to campus during the summer to complete my assignments for the day put the biggest smile on my face. Being in a space where I can enjoy a nice philosophy read and write my response to what my mind was thinking about reminded me of the joy I have in a learning environment.

What is the most important lesson you’ve learned during your time at Columbia?

Reading philosophy isn't easy—especially when you try to understand it all on your own. During my time at Columbia, I found it essential to utilize my peers' and TA’s assistance. Collaborative work was the key to understanding the passages and gaining new perspectives. I was someone who preferred to work alone on tasks, but F&C taught me the importance of community and exchanging thought processes. I now see how I don’t know everything and a voice other than my own can help me understand topics on a completely new level. Aside from being able to have intellectual talks with everyone, I was also able to build friendships. I have learned that having friends who you can both learn and laugh with makes the best relationships of all. Creating these dynamic relationships has made all the difference in my time at Columbia.

The Freedom and Citizenship experience allowed me to fall in love with learning all over again.

Joanna Cuatlayo

What are your plans after high school graduation? How do you hope to change the world?

After high school graduation, I plan to continue my education at Columbia University (Go Lions)! I look forward to diving deep into the Core Curriculum and learning more about what it means to be a citizen in this world and city. My hope is that I am able to help those in my community get to a level of sustainable living, no matter their backgrounds.

What are you most excited about for your next steps?

I am excited about the journey of finding myself as an individual. I look forward to all the lessons I have to learn, the friends I’m going to meet, and the changes in my community I will make. I’m eager to grow and explore what the world has to offer to me outside of my neighborhood in the Bronx.

Alejandro Alvarez Luna

Graduating from LaSalle Academy

Alejandro Alvarez Luna

What was your favorite part of the Freedom and Citizenship experience?

My favorite part of the F&C experience has been the tail end of the civic leadership project, when we did group research and interviews, because it was the culmination of all the work that had been done up to that point.

What is the most important lesson you’ve learned during your time at Columbia?

The most important lesson that I have learned during my time at Columbia is the importance of working as a team, not just when it came to having to put together the project, but also during the summer seminar when it comes to helping people understand something, but also being willing to look for help yourself.

What are your plans after high school graduation? How do you hope to change the world?

My plans after my high school graduation are to go to college and eventually go to med school as that is how I hope to be able to make a change in the world, by being able to help people as a physician treating those who are ill.

What are you most excited about for your next steps?

I am most excited to be able to study in the environment of a bigger school, as throughout all of my schooling I have always gone to schools that are on the smaller side, so I hope I can adjust well to that environment.

Geraldine Cabrera

Graduating from Bronx High School for Law and Community Service

Geraldine Cabrera

What was your favorite part of the Freedom and Citizenship experience?

My favorite part of the Freedom and Citizenship experience has been being able to get together with other people who are as intellectually curious as I am, because it made all the readings we did from influential philosophers fun. Especially since everyone is invested. The discussions I was able to be part of made me think beyond my own views, making the summer seminar the best and favorite part of my F&C experience.

What is the most important lesson you’ve learned during your time at Columbia?

The most important lesson I have learned through my time at Columbia has definitely been to embrace everyone’s perspectives, because we all come from different backgrounds, which influences, most of the time, how we think about certain matters. And respecting everyone’s views is significant. I think this is a skill everyone should have because it provides a positive environment and room for personal growth. Through my time at Columbia, I was able to directly obtain and exercise this skill.

What are your plans after high school graduation? How do you hope to change the world?

After graduating high school I plan on attending Columbia University for my bachelor's degree.

When I think about my future, I see myself as a medical provider who is giving people, such as the undocumented and people of color in general, the proper medical attention they have been denied and therefore deserve. For that reason, I hope to change the world one day by being directly on the floors of a hospital giving my part, but also through shedding light on the mistreatment issue to potentially create a group of people with the same goal and aspirations to combat this problem.

What are you most excited about for your next steps?

As a first-generation student, I am beyond excited to attend college, and pave the way for the rest of my family. I am unquestionably ready to meet new people, learn, and explore the city of New York, which is where I will be for the next four years.

Melanie Ortiz

Graduating from Democracy Prep Charter High School

Melanie Ortiz

What is your favorite part of the Freedom and Citizenship experience?

I’ve personally enjoyed being able to materialize the lessons we learned into the real world. I can confidently say that the frequency by which I question the ethics of a certain act or engage with the philosophical roots of social behavior have all increased after my time with F&C.

What is the most important lesson you’ve learned during your time at Columbia?

F&C has allowed me to understand that individuals have much more control over their lives than they may expect. Through the learning of the numerous philosophers that have shaped our world and the multitude of ideals we harbor, I began to understand that we—even in this modern age—have the capability to influence large facets of everything. What we and others surrounding us may consider to be ethical, immoral, and such can all be extensively structured by our own hand.

I am excited about the unknown. I’ve never had a set path that I've wanted to head towards, which makes spaces like college so exciting.

Melanie Ortiz

What are your plans after high school graduation? How do you hope to change the world?

I plan on entering university and studying political science with a concentration in political philosophy. F&C also played a large role in me choosing this major, so I am extremely grateful! Though this may be subject to change, I am leaning towards either a career in the marketing world or the general music business (as music is a personal hobby of mine). These both seem drastically different from political science, but I like to believe that the major extensively prepares me to analyze societal behaviors and media-based presence in both fields.

I hope that my future endeavors will mirror and further embolden the varying interests that currently lead my life. Through this, I will (fingers crossed) be able to encourage those around me to seek out all mediums of personal betterment—as opposite as they may be. Though this may seem too small of an answer to the grand question of “how to change the world,” I simply wish to push others to cross the various borderlines imposed upon our ever-expanding passions.

What are you most excited about for your next steps?

I am excited about the unknown. I’ve never had a set path that I've wanted to head towards, which makes spaces like college so exciting. The prospect of being able to slowly strip away the layers of fields that I like and don't like, actions that I do and don’t enjoy, and more, is something I cannot wait to experience!

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