By: Ashley Santiago, Deborah Garner, Franchesca Davila
Shaleika Vargas is a 24 year old Hispanic woman; born in Puerto Rico, raised in Cleveland and a role model to all. Shaleika moved to the U.S when she was in elementary school and went to high school in Cleveland, Ohio at John Marshall for two years and then she transferred to John Hay Early College; which had a three year graduation program. In order to catch up to her graduating class, Shaleika worked really hard in school and began to take night classes at Max Hayes for about six months. Since age of four or five, Shaleika knew that she wanted to be a lawyer and help people. This dream was what pushed Shaleika to be all that she could be in life. Though all of Shaleika’s hard work and dedication; she was able to graduate high school at the age of 16. When asked why Shaleika wanted to graduate early, she responded and said, “I felt I did everything in high school that I needed to. I was tired of high school and I knew the faster I completed high school the faster I could reach my dream to be a lawyer.” Come to find out, Shaleika was not properly prepared for her next step in reaching her dream, college.
When Shaleika graduated high school she went straight to college at Case Western Reserve to get a bachelor’s degree in Sociology. Shaleika knew college was going be hard and she felt that the CMSD did not fully prepare for college. Shaleika was the youngest of her class but she felt her colleagues were very welcoming. In college Shaleika knew she didn’t want to waste time. Shaleika was certain of what she wanted to do in her life and when she went to college she rarely spent time with her friends; most of her time was taken up by studying. Shaleika was able to pay for college through her scholarships, which paid for 80-90% of the costs; the rest was paid by student loans. When asked what would be her advice for Cleveland’s Latino youth, she answered, “Get tutoring if you need it, the professors want to help and if you are willing to work through it you can accomplish your goals. Do not be afraid to fail, just get back up and try again.”
“As Hispanics we should see college as mandatory, not optional.”
After receiving a degree in Sociology, Shaleika went straight to law school at CWRU. The transition from college to law school was very rough for Shaleika because she was so young. Many of her colleagues would judge her because of her age, but that did not stop her from reaching her dreams. Shaleika never once took her eyes off the prize. Just as she stayed focused and studied all in high school, she did the same in law school. She did not have time for friends or birthdays. Shaleika had to organize her time and more importantly, not waist time. When asked how long her classes were, Shaleika responded and said,” some classes in law school would take 1 ½ hours while others would be 3 or 4 hours long. After three years of law school Shaleika graduated as one of the youngest in her class, in May of 2013. Shaleika is now studying for the board exam that she will take on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at the end of July. Shaleika studies 9 to 12 hours every day to prepare for this exam. Shaleika will have her results in November. After she finishes with her test Shaleika wants to take month off to relax, find a job and once she gets her results began her career in either a civil or criminal litigation. In closing, Shaleika stated, “As Hispanics we should see college as mandatory, not optional.”
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