So my name is Claire Samia I'm, a student in Grandview, University I'm, a senior majoring in social work. My passion is to help others in need, especially I have a special passion in education. Most particularly post-secondary education I began to understand how difficult it was when I first entered college because I'm, a first generation student, so I basically entered blindfolded, and you know didn't really know how to navigate through the system and all that so I really want to help others so that they don't have to go through that same experience.

So that's my biggest passion.

I moved passion to progress, one step at a time, so the first I think I do is I get educated, become educated on the topic, whatever it is. So, for example, I learned about a bill that was introduced at the state level and this bill would include education about human trafficking, sexual abuse and sexual assault in the schools K through 12, and then I went to the Capitol and advocated for the bill.

So that would be my next step to go advocate the next step after that would be to to network with others that are interested in the same thing that I am same subject. That I am in I spoke to the middle school, where I grew up at and they I had talked to them about, maybe including this kind of education in the curriculum, and they said it was something that they would look into, and I also reached out to the teens against human trafficking organization and had them connect with the middle school.

So they could figure out what a way to include into the curriculum. After that, I also learned about the red sand project through the teens against human trafficking, and they it's a project basically to bring awareness about human trafficking. And what I did I was the president of the Social Work Club here at Grand, View University, and we put on a an event here on campus and we had red sand and we filled in the cracks of the sidewalk and they, as the students were passing by.

We educated them on it and we encouraged them to pour sand in the and the cracks so that they could. So it could symbolize the people who have fallen in the cracks because of human trafficking.

You know being acknowledged for this award. It's it's honestly, something I didn't expect. Sometimes I I get so lost in everything that I'm doing I'm so caught up in every everything and I. Don't take the time to take a step back to actually see and reflect on everything I've done. So it's really good to know. It feels nice to know that there are people watching my progress and seeing the good things that I'm doing I.

Feel as a community here in Des Moines, we need to work on educating the growing population of Latino families here in Des Moines, especially about post-secondary education. So many families don't know about the importance of furthering your education and all the opportunities that come with it. So educating them specifically about that and many families. Don't have the right tools or knowledge to to learn about this right so they're. How are they supposed to educate their children on furthering their education when they have little knowledge about it?

And many families don't have the privilege to do so so, instead of us blaming them for their lack of access or knowledge, we should be out there doing the extra outreach to inform them and educate them so that they have a better understanding of why education post-secondary education is important.