The 2020 GEJ Scholars are selected as they exemplify LAJF’s mission of fostering a lifelong commitment to compassionate and responsible leadership for the betterment of our communities. Over the coming months, we will feature the 2020 GEJ Scholars so that you can get to know them. To learn more about this and other opportunities for CRS alums, please visit our website.
Read our blog today to learn about Alicia Sandoval Vadillo ‘13, who recently curated a show titled “My Soul Reaches for Dreams” at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in New Mexico, and Zachary Kaplan ‘08, former social studies teacher and currently at law school.
Alicia Sandoval Vadillo ‘13
Alicia was a camper at CRS in 2013. Originally from Mexico, Alicia recently graduated from Skidmore College with departmental honors in both art history and international affairs. She is currently preparing to enter her first year of graduate school at New York University to pursue a master’s degree in Latin American and Caribbean Studies and Museum Studies.
While in college, Alicia began delving deeper into the complex relationships between gender, art, and ethnicity and exploring how they might be used to make larger statements on political issues such as immigration and civil rights. In 2019, she curated a show titled “My Soul Reaches for Dreams” at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in New Mexico. This exhibit included over 200 pieces of various mediums by 162 artists ages 10-14 from the local area. Alicia believes that art can play an important role in activism and fighting injustice. In a research project conducted at the end of her undergraduate years, she focused specifically on how large art installations along the U.S.-Mexico border acted as a form of resistance to anti-immigration policy and a tool for building community across national borders.
Looking into the future, Alicia hopes to create spaces that inspire empathy and unity as well as instigate conversations surrounding difficult topics such as racism, Euro-centrism, and exclusion. As an immigrant from Mexico, Alicia feels passionate about the diverse and complex experiences of immigrants in the United States today. She wants to use her experiences to help create representative spaces for people to not only visit and witness but to see themselves as a part of.
This dream began, in part, during Alicia’s time at Camp. When reflecting on her CRS experience, Alicia says: “My time in Clinton helped me understand the importance of being not just your own safe space, but providing that for others too.” At Camp, Alicia not only grew more confident, brave, and honest with herself, but she also learned the importance of community, empathy, and leadership. Guided by a sense of reciprocity, Alicia’s ultimate goal is to find a way to give back to her community for the support and care it has given her over the years. She hopes to encourage others to be outspoken, honest, and unapologetic by giving them spaces to be who they are and one day rise to who they want to be.
What are your thoughts after receiving the GEJ Scholarship and how will the scholarship contribute to your future goals and plans?
After receiving the scholarship, more than anything else I felt an immense sense of gratitude. I feel extremely lucky that I get to continue exploring my passions because someone believed in me, and makes me want to continue growing and learning to be able to give back. It will also really help on a financial level because it means that I'm able to continue this journey without taking out as many loans.
Do you have any tips for prospective applicants to the scholarship or CRS? Do you have any advice for younger students in general?
I think my advice for students, in general, is to lead their lives in a way that their younger selves would be proud of them, even if it's in small ways, like asking a question during class or big things like upholding your values. For people applying for the scholarship, I think it's good to reflect on both your time at Camp, the values of the organization, and the effects that they continue to have on your life, your intentions, and your goals.
Zachary Kaplan ‘08
Zack ‘08 is a CRS alumnus from Pennsylvania, living in Durham, North Carolina. Currently, Zack is in his third and final year of law school at Duke University. After attending CRS in 2008, Zack was filled with a strong sense of responsibility and drive to reach his own potential. Through his relationships with other campers, Zack grew more knowledgeable and passionate about fixing injustices not only in his community but also in his country and the world, setting off on a long journey towards making a difference that would ultimately lead him towards law and policy.
Along the way, Zack sought to embody the Camp ideal of leading through action. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where Zack completed his bachelor’s with honors in political science and American studies, he served as a leader at the university’s center for social justice and the co-director of a diversity orientation for incoming students. After graduating from UNC, Zack worked as a fifth-grade social studies teacher at an economically disadvantaged school in Durham for three years, where he founded a student organization for community service, before returning to law school in 2018. Now, as a law student, Zack is active in a number of organizations aimed at promoting equity and justice for marginalized communities, including the Public Interest Law Foundation, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and the Board of Directors of the school in Durham where he previously taught.
Zack’s work, however, is just getting started. After graduating from law school, Zack will serve as a law clerk on the North Carolina Supreme Court before hopefully becoming a civil rights attorney to advocate for issues such as housing, voting accessibility, and racial equity. His main passion, however, still lies in education. Zack aims to one day be in a position to craft education policy that will advance education and career opportunities for marginalized students across North Carolina and beyond.
As a GEJ Scholar, Zack advises other young students in the pursuit of progress to always seek the highest intersection of their personal passions and professional skills. After contracting COVID-19 earlier this year, Zack often thought about the simpler days he had at Camp in 2008, his fond memories, and the values that his time at CRS instilled—community, personal reflection, and service-driven leadership. In his reflection, Zack says that he realized that it was these very ideals that prepared him for difficult moments and have the power to sustain us during times of great crisis, tragedy, and challenge.
What are your thoughts after receiving the GEJ Scholarship and how will the scholarship contribute to your future goals and plans?
I am very grateful for LAJF's continued generosity and support of my education and career through the GEJ Scholarship program. In many ways my personal and professional goals are an outgrowth of the values of community, social justice, and service-leadership that I learned at Camp, so it feels fitting that LAJF remains a part of my journey. As any graduate student knows, every little bit of financial help goes a long way towards breathing a bit easier and focusing on your studies, work, and personal health while trying to pay for a top-notch education.
Do you have any tips for prospective applicants to the scholarship or CRS? Do you have any advice for younger students in general?
Since my time as a camper in 2008, I have tried to keep a vigilant eye towards pursuing the highest intersection of my personal passions and professional skills. I firmly believe that if you orient your decisions in life towards best being in service to your community, you will find fulfillment and success. The most quoted line in my favorite book, The Alchemist, says that "when you really want something, the whole universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." For me, CRS and the GEJ Scholarship have both played key roles in that conspiracy, and I encourage other campers and students to likewise look into how the LAJF community can support them along their own journey in one way or another.