Honored by Congress: My Proudest Achievement
My proudest college achievement was my contribution to President Obama’s Heads Up America campaign to provide free education for community college students. I first got involved through my school, LaGuardia Community College in New York City. The school’s publication team asked me to send a short video speaking about why students should have free education. Students from other colleges were submitting videos as well. From those submissions President Obama would choose the face of the campaign along with who would be cast in the PSA video they needed to make.
How lucky was I to be chosen out of multiple students to join both of those initiatives? I was so excited about this opportunity because I believe education should be treated as a right, since more low income families are making an effort to gain a college education. Once I was given the details about rehearsals and where the set would be, I was excited for this new adventure. At the time, I didn’t realize how much this opportunity would change the course of my life moving forward.
On the day of filming, I was introduced to everyone on the team and given my script to memorize for the PSA. I sat there for a few hours mingling with other actors and memorizing my lines at the same time. During that experience, I felt uneasy and nervous because I knew the importance of the work I was doing and that I needed to perform it as planned. As my scheduled time to film crept closer, I realized a lot of prominent actors and figures were included in this campaign including Louis C.K., Chris Rock, Dr. Jill Biden, and even the President! After seeing that list, I was expecting my anxiousness to get worse, but instead it calmed me down! It allowed me to have an objective view. The filming team was impressed by my natural and professional presentation and some of the actors complimented and encouraged me to go into comedy and acting in the future.