Rosa Vazquez graduated from Harvard College studying Government with a minor in Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights and a citation in Spanish. She was born and raised in Guadalajara, Jalisco Mexico, and immigrated to Santa Ana, California as a child. Because of the complexity of her migration story, Rosa did not qualify for DACA. This exposed her to the injustices that undocumented immigrants in the U.S experience daily.
As a result, Rosa decided to get involved in political campaigns in the hopes of positively impacting her community. Rosa has worked on over 5 campaigns, and in these roles, she was often the sole representation of the marginalized groups that were being targeted for votes and engagement.
The lives of young people, specifically young people of color and undocumented immigrants, are consistently politicized yet they do not have the ability to deeply engage with the political system. As a Cheng Fellow, Rosa focused on empowering young people of color, specifically undocumented youth, in order to provide the skills and opportunity to impact the current political system through engagement in legislative, issue, and electoral campaigns.