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.
This PSA went viral. I was privileged enough to work again with Dr. Biden and did an entire speech with her on the importance of the initiative. I was officially named as the “poster girl” for the Heads Up America campaign. After the speech, I had a line of interviews to speak about my accomplishments and why I found this campaign important. Once I was finished with interviews, I was asked to be a special guest of Dr. Biden on the Late Night Show with Seth Myers. We discussed the campaign and showed additional footage of the PSA; needless to say, that was a night to remember.
I have always stayed in contact with Dr. Biden. Her kind-hearted spirit and motivational words helped me through my path of success. I was honored by Congress for my work and contribution to the city of New York, and have seen the bill passed successfully to have free community college which has been implemented in numerous states, including New York. There have been numerous news interviews with PIX11, NY1 and other local news stations. I was also honored as Valedictorian for my graduating class, and I expressed my gratitude for being able to make countless differences within New York, with my proudest being the free community college campaign.
Pearson Students, what has been your proudest moment in college? Please share when you retweet my blog!
About the author
Rachel Chambers
Rachel Chambers is currently a rising senior at Emory University studying Human Health with an Ethics minor. Rachel has aspirations of going into health policy to help with policy reformation in underprivileged countries and within the United States to improve the access and type of healthcare people from disadvantaged backgrounds receive. She is currently 20 years old, and began her college career at LaGuardia Community College where she graduated as Valedictorian before transferring to Emory University on a full ride. She is currently a Kaplan Leadership Scholar and a Gilman Scholar. She studied abroad in Paris, France over the summer of 2017 to study the history of medicine. She enjoys public speaking, hanging out with friends, sports and reading.
Rachel is Pearson Campus Ambassador and also a Pearson Student Insider. To learn more about the Insiders program and apply, click here.
