Madalin Rodriguez is the winner of our 2023 Studyportals Scholarship. She is set to study a Master’s in Human Rights and Multi-Level Governance in Italy. and Her story won our hearts and convinced us to help her fulfil her dream.
She understands full well the struggles and challenges that can come with pursuing one's dreams, but she knows not to give up. She wants you to know that although navigating through extensive research and facing rejections can be very difficult, you shouldn’t take these setbacks personally and keep trying.
Madalin has a message to all of you students dreaming of an international experience: "Don't give up. There are people out there who care and want to hear you out."
How she became interested in access to education and children’s rights
Madalin's life took a dramatic turn when she was seven. Her parents, who were illegal immigrants in the United States, were deported back to Mexico. From that moment on, ordinary things, like having enough to eat and easy access to learning, became struggles she and her siblings had to face. She remembers going from the colourful classrooms and outside playgrounds in Delaware to much more austere-looking classrooms in a school without a playground or a cafeteria. What’s more, she suddenly found herself dealing with a lot of familial responsibility, way beyond her tender age.
In Mexico, her father ran a tire shop on the ground floor of the house where they lived. Her mother joined in to help because they couldn't afford to hire employees. That left Madalin in charge of many house duties and the responsibility to care for her younger brother and sister. “It was during that time when I realised that food security was not something available to everybody. Even we struggled trying to make ends meet.” This experience sparked her interest in issues related to access to education, children's rights, and finding ways to ensure that children could lead secure and happy lives.
Young Madalin with her family
Her younger brother’s ambition inspired her
Madalin’s brother, Fidel, wasn’t very good at school. She remembers how he faced a lot of rough comments, and many people told him he wouldn’t go too far in life and certainly not in school. But Fidel is in college today; he persevered despite other people’s beliefs about him.
True education is not about how well we do in school, as many great scholars might tell you. It’s about having the resilience to keep learning and enrich your mind, it’s about finding the subjects you are passionate about and pursuing them without giving up.
To access better education, Madalin had to make the hard decision of leaving her parents and moving in with her cousins in the United States when she was only 12. Although she had her family’s support, life wasn’t easy for her.
“I think that's where a lot of my motivation to protect children comes from because I know what it's like to not have that protection from your parents. A lot of the time you become this easy target for people to take advantage of because you're young and you don't know things.”
She had to be in charge of her own legal documents and she helped her brother come to the US as well. Soon enough, she and her brother had to become the legal guardians of their younger sister. Nevertheless, like Fidel, Madalin didn’t give up on her dream of getting an education and supporting her siblings to get one too.
She first tried Physics but fell in love with International Relations
Getting into college was not the only challenge Madalin faced. She explains that often in families where scarcity and insecurity are present like her family is, parents encourage children to study certain fields like Engineering, Medicine, Law, or Teaching because they believe these paths to offer the most security for the future. At the same time, in high school, teachers don’t really focus on the options the kids from difficult social situations have afterwards but rather on having them graduate. That’s why Madalin chose a STEM major in Physics when she first started college - because it's what was expected of her. But she soon realised it wasn’t the right thing for her.
“I started investigating, and that's how I came across International Studies where you just learn about the world, you learn about different cultures, you learn about ways to talk about ideas without invading another place.”
Now she’s on a new journey
Today, Madalin is ready to embark on a new journey. Soon, she goes off to Italy to learn from a new culture and further expand her mind. She loves that family is at the core of everything in Italy, a lot like it is in Mexico. She believes the best way to help children have a stable life and enjoy childhood is to learn what rights they have and explore what systems work and don’t work around the world.
“I want to learn about what protects them and what's actually available. I would love to research more weight-effective ways to provide these resources for them. That's how I see it.”
She knows that creativity, nature, and family support are very important in children’s lives and are also defining elements of any culture. She believes in government policies that respect cultural identity and in conversations between nations without invading or taking away other people’s freedom.
Madalin's determination and unwavering commitment to her family and her dreams are an inspiration to any students out there. She believes that “everything is a learning opportunity” and we strongly believe the same thing! Her story reminds us that with perseverance and a strong sense of purpose, we can overcome obstacles and make a positive impact in the world. Especially through education, which opens people's minds and gives them the most valuable tool to better their lives.
As the winner of our 2023 Studyportals Scholarship, Madalin Rodriguez won EUR 10,000 to pay for her Master’s in Human Rights and Multi-Level Governance in Italy at the University of Padua and follow her dream.
