By
Junior Jessica Franco, a first-generation college student whose Boston College education has been heightened by experiences in Guatemala and Ecuador, is this year’s Archbishop Oscar A. Romero Scholarship recipient.
Franco received the award at a March 29 ceremony hosted by the Romero Scholarship Committee. The event also saw presentation of the John A. Dinneen, SJ, Hispanic Alumni Community Service Award to Arivee N. Vargas Rozier-Byrd ’05, JD ’08 [see sidebar]
Arivee N. Vargas Rozier-Byrd ’05, JD ’08 – a former recipient of the Archbishop Oscar A. Romero Scholarship – was named winner of the 2014 John A. Dinneen, SJ, Hispanic Alumni Community Service Award at the March 29 Romero Scholarship Ceremony.
Rozier-Byrd is a member of the Boston law firm Jones Day, where she focuses on civil litigation in state and federal courts and serves on the firm’s Diversity Committee. For the past three years, she has been a part-time faculty member at Boston College Law School, and serves as a mentor for students of color there and at other area law schools. Rozier-Byrd frequently ap- pears as a panelist and presenter at career development events aimed at exposing college and high school students of color to the legal field.
The scholarship, which covers a portion of senior year tuition, is awarded annually to a BC junior who demonstrates a commitment to the values and ideals reflected in the life of Archbishop of El Salvador Oscar Romero, an outspoken advocate for the poor and oppressed who was assassinated in 1980.
A native of Harrison, NY, Franco is an economics and theology double major with a minor in international studies. Last year, supported by an Advanced Study Grant, she conducted research in Guatemala for the BC Center for Human Rights and International Justice’s Migration and Human Rights Project.
Under the guidance of Lynch School of Education Professor Brinton Lykes, CHRIJ associate director, Franco studied the impact ofparental absence due to immigration on the family members left behind: the grandmothers now raising their grandchildren and the children growing up with absent parents. The project included offering workshops on community psychology, stress management workshops for grandparents, and art therapy workshops for children.
She also began a research project on the transnational nature of remittances and debt, interviewing five families in Guatemala with a family member working in the US. She plans to follow this family connection by interviewing the migrant workers in the US, with the goal of developing the research for her senior thesis. Her work with the Migration and Human Rights Project also includes providing informational workshops for immigrants in East Boston and Providence.
Franco spent last semester in a study-abroad program in Ecuador, which further exposed her to race and socioeconomic issues. She bonded with the 17-year-old maid of her host family, teaching her how to read Spanish and use a computer. She also had an internship with an NGO, working for immigration rights with marginalized populations along the northern border of Ecuador.
In an interview last week, Franco recalled hearing at her freshman orientation about all the opportunities for students to do research with professors and study abroad. “It all sounded so perfect, but I never saw myself doing those things. But when I got here my whole life turned around.
“My mom has always emphasized the importance of education and religion, but I did not know about the Jesuits until I came to BC. I’m so thankful for the Jesuit mission and the Jesuits. If I wasn’t here [at BC], I wouldn’t be doing these things.”
At BC, she is involved with Learning to Serve, a program that pairs freshmen with upperclass student mentors to ease the adjustment to college and provide an introduction to social justice issues and opportunities for volunteer service in the Boston area. As a homesick freshman, Franco found the mentoring provided through Learning to Serve invaluable.
“I had a great mentor when I was a freshman and I knew I wanted to do the same for someone else,” said Franco, who for the last two years has served as a mentor to freshmen and led a group for weekly volunteer service at Epiphany School and Project Bread.
Franco praised the Theology Department faculty, especially one influential professor. “Professor [Stephen] Pope is amazing. He is the one who introduced me to Oscar Romero. Due to his class, I had a personal transformation, a gradual awakening to the realities in the world and the moral responsibility to addressing those issues,” she said.
Among her favorite classes, Franco cited Perspectives and The Challenge of Justice, both with Pope; Latin America in the World, with History Associate Professor Deborah Levenson-Estrada; and Liberation Christology with Flatley Professor of Catholic Thelogy Roberto Goizueta.
“I feel I have a calling to be in solidarity with the marginalized and the oppressed, particularly in Latin America.”
Franco hopes to go abroad after graduation either via a Fulbright award, Jesuit Volunteer Corps or the Peace Corps. She ultimately wants to purse graduate studies. Her dream is to work for the United Nations.
She was especially grateful that her mother, Martha Mejia, was able to attend the Romero Award ceremony. Mejia, one of 16 children, immigrated to the United States from Colombia and has worked tirelessly to enable her daughter to go to college.
“My mom came here 35 years ago and she has not rested one day since,” said Franco. “She came here to obtain the American dream. She’s the strongest person I know. I’m super grateful to her.”
The other Romero Scholarship finalists were Francisco Bernard, a communication and sociology double major who does extensive work with the Organization of Latin American Affairs and Rosemary Concepcion, a sociology major and four-year member of the International Club who tutors local middle school students. All three finalists were awarded gift certificates to the Boston College Bookstore.