A lot of my peers hated high school. And I don’t blame them. After experiencing college and the diverse, wide world that is out there for all of us, it’s easy to write off your high school experience as just a blip on the timeline that got you to where you belong.

But I can’t seem to write off mine. Perhaps that’s because I enjoyed high school. I had great teachers, a great school, and friends from a diverse set of experiences. I got to experience things that I’ll remember for the rest of my life, in large part because my high school, Liberty High School, paved the way for me to do so.

I don’t really believe in the term “melting pot” as it assumes a type of assimilation that I can’t behind, but Liberty was probably what you think of when visualizing that trite term. Our school was the only one in the predominantly white and wealthy district to be over 50 percent minority students and it shows. I knew it was Holi, not because the news told me, but because the Hindu students at school celebrated with an explosion of color after school. The amazing black students at our school had revitalized a step team whose performances were always my favorite part of the pep rallies. My memories of multicultural days in elementary school is dominated by the Asian and South Asian parents taking over the cafeteria with good food and music.

That’s not to say that we were without problems or racism. That’s a pipe dream if there ever was one. Oftentimes, our school was a place to celebrate for students of color, while white students ignored it completely or looked down upon it. The experiences of black and Latinx students were downplayed in favor of Asian and South Asian experiences. Our parents still complain when an apartment complex, which housed most of the lower income, minority, or untraditional families, got zoned to their school. What was viewed as good, popular, or wholesome was the white, Christian, sports-oriented sect of our high school, which I imagine is still true of many of the high schools in the country.

While this remains true, what also remains true about LHS is the fact that minority students have been the lifeblood of our school and its successes. Dozens of National Merit scholars, successful UIL competitors, exemplary sports teams—look at their pictures, those students of color.

But last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton came after some of those students, those students that make my former high school the pillar of success that it is. Continue reading →

If you know me at all, or even follow me on social media, you know the emphasis and importance I place on a person’s civic duty to vote. Casting a ballot is more than supporting a certain candidate, it’s about exhibiting that you care about the future of your country and your community.

The number one excuse I hear for abstaining from voting is the reasoning that a single vote cannot change the outcome or result of an election. But for college students, especially here at UT, that reasoning simply does not hold true.

Last year around this time, Kevin Helgren and Binna Kim, current Student Body President and Vice President, won their election to their university positions by an extremely small margin—143 votes to be exact. Continue reading →