Jaime Figueroa, North Shore Community College

Jaime Figueroa, a soon to be graduate from North Shore Community College, is a fearless advocate for underserved and minority populations. For the past two years he has served as the voice of minority students on committees which address diverse issues such as accessible child care and affordable textbooks. He is the students’ representative on the college’s Academic Governance Committee and the Civic Learning Committee.
Jaime’s leadership skills initiated many vital efforts on campus, such as a blood drive and a coat drive to benefit the community. His personal motto is to make the world a better place than he found it. In addition to his work on campus, in the community he has worked tirelessly in soup kitchens to provide meals to those in need. He also has spent the last two years tutoring youth in math as well as providing assistance to youth in the college application process. Jaime’s commitment and leadership in volunteering is unsurpassed. Jaime takes his role of being a voice for students and particularly minority students seriously, channeling his energy and enthusiasm into all he does. His devotion to his peers and to the underserved in the community at large is truly inspiring.  
-Patricia Gentile, President

If I am asked what civic engagement means to me I refer to a quote from Thomas Ehrlich, “Civic engagement means working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make that difference. It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes.” I understand one simple premise: this is a challenging time to be a human being, especially a human being with a social conscience. We know that one in five American children are growing up in poverty in the world’s richest nation. Thanks to social research, we know a great deal about the impact of poverty on children’s cognitive, social and emotional development, yet we seem relatively powerless as a society to take the steps needed to end child poverty. This is why I continue to be a fearless advocate for our nations underprivileged homeless youth whether its volunteering at the local soup kitchen to feed them or facilitating coat drives, for the fierce winter days. I have known since I was young that battling social challenges is a passion of mine. 
-Jaime Figueroa