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Jessica Marlyn Olivares
Sociology
Jessica Marlyn Olivares is a native
of Brownsville, the largest city in
the Rio Grande Valley, located on
the border by the sea in Texas. She
is a junior Sociology major hoping
to minor in Business or Economics.
After her sophomore year of high
school, she traveled to Chicago to
participate in the National Hispanic
Institute’s 2004 Lorenzo deZavala
Youth Legislative Session (NHI is a
non-profit that hosts several
leadership programs for Latino high
school students). This program
opened her eyes to several issues
facing the U.S. Latino community and
changed her perspective on the
importance of connecting to her
culture. She was financially
sponsored to attend the program by a
professor at the University of Texas
at Brownsville who was working in
Regional Development for several
areas in the city. After learning
more about this type of work, she
knew that she wanted to pursue a
career in regional/economic
development and demography in
relation to public policy. Jessica
plans to pursue a master’s degree in
applied public policy and/or
demography after having some years
of experience and has the ultimate
goal of obtaining a PhD to possibly
become a Professor of Sociology.
Since
her freshman year at Texas A&M,
Jessica has been actively engaged in
several organizations, giving her
the opportunity to gain more
leadership experience. During her
first year as an undergrad, she
served in the Rudder Hall Council,
was trained as an Alternative Spring
Break Site-Leader, and participated
with the Committee for Awareness of
Mexican American Culture – Student
Conference on Latino Affairs
Subcommittee as the Operations
coordinator. She also co-founded a
student organization at Texas A&M
called Destino, which is part of a
nation-wide Latino Movement for
Christ seeking to raise up a
generation of leaders for the Latino
community to fulfill the Great
Commission. She has served as the
Student Director and a Bible study
leader ever since its inception.
That summer, she was a Senior
Counselor for twenty females at the
National Hispanic Institute's 2006
Lorenzo deZavala Youth Legislative
Session in Rochester, New York.
During her second year, she was as
an AVID tutor/mentor at Jane Long
Middle School’s Planning for College
Success Program, a Regents Scholar
Peer Mentor, and also led a program
to collect donations for Hurricane
Katrina relief workers. At the start
of this year, aside from her
leadership in Destino, she is also a
volunteer area recruiter for the
National Hispanic Institute and was
recently announced as the VP of
Public Relations for Pi Gamma Mu,
and the International Liberal Arts
Honor Society.
Jessica grew up just minutes away
from the Mexican border; this gave
her the opportunity to travel
regularly throughout the northern
border towns of Mexico for shopping,
dining, etc. She also competed with
the state of Coahuila’s track team
during their regional meets in
Saltillo and Monterrey during her
sophomore year in high school. After
high school she traveled to
Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, for one month
with the National Hispanic
Institute’s Mexican Language Program
to study Mexican culture/history and
the Spanish language at El Instituto
Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores
de Monterrey, an opportunity which
also allowed her to travel to
various southern cities in the
country. Finally, in the winter of
2006, she participated in a vision
trip to East Asia as a short-term
missionary for 10 days. The trip
opened her eyes to the world beyond
the U.S.-Mexico border.
Last year, Jessica received the
distinction of a South Texas
Academic Rising Scholar and was
inducted into the National Society
of Collegiate Scholars. She was also
recognized for her heart-for-service
by the Committee for Awareness of
Mexican American Culture.
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