Even though soccer had always been a big part of his life, the suspense was nerve wracking. Daniel ’21 had never before tried out for a school athletic team, and that February night, along with 60 or 70 hopeful peers, he watched as his high school’s coaches filled their rosters. 

One by one, players – including some of his closest friends – were called into the office and named to either the varsity or junior varsity team.

“I started getting nervous,” he said. “I was like, ‘Wow, the spots are filling up.’” 

And then, finally, Daniel was called. The coach said he’d liked what he’d seen in Daniel: a work ethic and willingness to put his body into defensive play. 

“He loved how I was one of the people who actually love defending,” Daniel recalled. “He told me, ‘Congratulations, you made the team.’”

The varsity team, at that.

“I walked out of the office with a big smile on my face,” he said. “All my friends we came and we cheered together. It was really nice.”

But maybe not surprising, considering Daniel’s general approach to life. 

*The COVID-19 pandemic subsequently disrupted Daniel’s soccer plans. In May 2021 he sent this update: “I am finally able to play soccer with my friends once again, which has been amazing.”

PAIN – AND PLANS

A junior, Daniel is a scholar in the Scholars Latino Initiative (SLI), a nonprofit that creates college opportunities for first-generation Latino/x high school students. He’s a member of the Key Club and the culture club Latinos Unidos, and president of the Spanish Honor Society.

His academic load is anything but lightweight: Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. History, AP English, an online college class, AP Calculus, and AP Chemistry. During another class period, he offers math peer tutoring.

Already certified in phlebotomy through a high school class last year – but still too young to work in the field – Daniel’s goal is to be a nurse anesthetist. 

It’s an ambition that he came by honestly: “I was a really clumsy kid, so I would get hurt a lot,” he said. When he’d need stitching or other treatment, “I would always feel the pain.”

He plans first to become a registered nurse at community college, then earn a bachelor of science degree in nursing, and then pursue a master’s degree to become a certified registered nurse anesthetist.

“What’s notable about Daniel,” said his SLI program director, “is his genuine, deep caring for people. He is a devoted student who is learning the long-term benefits of perseverance and consistent, continued work. Daniel applies himself to excel in academics, yet keeps life in perspective with all that is around him.”

PATH TO SLI

Daniel was born in Arlington, Virginia; his family moved when he was two years old. His parents, from El Salvador, didn’t attend college – but always wanted a “better future” for their children.

“They made sure that I kept it in the back of my head,” he said. “They really want what’s best for me.”

His older sister, a SLI alum, finished high school with a year’s worth of college credits and is now on track to earn a bachelor’s degree in business.

“I saw the benefits that SLI was giving her,” Daniel said, “like preparing her to gain leadership skills as well as how to get a feel for college and how to prepare for it.” In ninth grade he was recommended to the program by a teacher and applied, then was interviewed and accepted.

“I wanted to gain those skills that SLI had to offer,” he said. “I’m grateful to SLI for giving me such a great opportunity.” 

Daniel has participated in SLI book seminars on analytic thinking skills, and the program matched him with a university student mentor who has given him “really helpful” time management tips for academic success. 

SLI also pushed him out of his comfort zone to start new friendships, he said, and to collaborate with others and join in team-building service projects such as a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day event packaging food for community members. 

“I don’t see myself as the same person I was two and a half years ago,” he said. “I see myself as someone who’s more outgoing. My work ethic has increased, and my determination to do something. There’s times where maybe the results aren’t what I want, but I’m always pushing through to make sure that everything improves for the next time.”

FAITH ROOTS

Daniel and his family are devout Seventh Day Adventists, and his guiding principle is “Ama a tu prójimo como a ti mismo,” he said: “Love others just as you love yourself.”

“It’s how I have respect for myself and try to motivate myself,” he said. “Just as my parents have taught that mindset to me, I want to teach that mindset to my friends.”

His faith commitments, he said, have translated into his other commitments, as well: to his studies, his community league soccer teammates, his sense of purpose even when things get tough.

“My parents have always taught me to never give up,” he said. “Every time I’m on a car ride with my dad, he always gives me tips or advice, to always make sure to do well in school. If you ever fall down, make sure to always pick yourself back up and always keep pushing forward, because all that hard work will eventually pay off in the end.”

Today, it’d be different. But then, back in November, the Richmond Times-Dispatch headline quoted her as saying, “I didn’t know that I could make a difference.”

Because now Fernanda knows she can. 

A Scholars Latino Initiative (SLI) scholar and the senior class president at Huguenot High School in Richmond, Fernanda had written a letter to the Richmond mayor and schools superintendent and the Virginia secretary of education honoring her AP government teacher, a “personal mentor.” 

She had also included in the letter a request for tickets to see the musical “Hamilton” – but she never expected that 118 tickets would be donated to her class and teacher and “dozens of other Richmond students and teachers,” the article said.

“I can change things,” Fernanda now says. “I can make a difference.”

FROM ‘BORING’ TO ‘THE DREAM’

The “Hamilton” tickets experience has only strengthened Fernanda’s resolve to be a changemaker. She had already discovered her interest in political science, which she said began with SLI assignments. A nonprofit that creates college opportunities for Latino high school students, SLI offers its scholars rigorous academic challenge, leadership development, supportive mentorships and scholarship awards. 

Fernanda used to think that learning about other countries and history was “so boring,” she said – but in SLI she began learning at a new level about such topics as the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court case or the systematic suppression of indigenous Central American cultures.

“I want to be very involved with the community,” she said. “That’s something that can impact a lot of people. I can start locally, and then – the dream would be to one day help in policymaking or the US government, and change systems.”

She has already begun, serving on the superintendent’s student advisory committee, where she learned that “you can complain all day long, but if you can’t find a solution or an alternative way to solve it, then you’re basically complaining for no reason,” she said.

‘WE HAVE TO GO’

SLI “feels like a family,” Fernanda said, a supportive place with other college-minded Latino students. But SLI has impacted her family of origin, too.

Fernanda was born in North Carolina and raised in Virginia. Her parents, from Mexico and Guatemala, have worked in housekeeping, restaurants and sock and poultry factories; her dad now pastors and works in construction. Neither holds a college degree, although before immigrating her dad had begun medical training. 

They are faithful attenders of Saturday SLI, when guest speakers educate scholars’ families about accessing college: The FAFSA application, for example, or the difference between public and private colleges – “things that I wouldn’t know how to explain to my parents or wouldn’t even know,” Fernanda said. 

That programming has led them to be “more involved with my academics,” she said. “When it’s a Saturday SLI, they’re like, ‘Okay, we have to go.’ It’s not ‘Do we have time to go?’”

‘THE OPPORTUNITY TO FAIL’

SLI has given Fernanda a “perspective of what college is going to be like,” she said, thanks to the college-level reading and writing projects assigned by SLI founder and director Peter Iver Kaufman, a professor of leadership studies at the University of Richmond.

“Sometimes when we write papers for Dr. Kaufman, our papers come back scratched up with so many comments and notes, and we have to check this, and grammar check that,” she said. “I get the opportunity to fail, and I get the opportunity to learn and grow from that, rather than going to college fresh off the boat, getting out of high school and hitting reality.”

The hard work has immediate payoffs, too.

“I apply the skills I learned with SLI to my school here,” she said. “Before SLI, if I had to write a one-page essay I would think that was the worst thing ever. And then I came to SLI and we have to write seven-to-ten-page essays, and we have to learn how to articulate a thought and make sure we have evidence to back it up. So now when I get school work, it’s easier, because I’ve gotten practice from SLI.”

‘HAMILTON’

While getting to see “Hamilton” was “a dream come true,” Fernanda said, what most excited her about the whole experience was having helped 117 others see it, too. 

“All of this was done with the power of advocating,” she said. “It shows me that I have potential.”