Words by ‘LLERO Editors
For many people of color who are the first in their family to go to college. The experience can be as daunting and challenging as it is rewarding. Integrating into a new environment, maintaining one’s cultural identity, living up to expectations and pursuing academic success. Hardly an easy feat.
It’s a challenge Priscila Coronado is familiar with and has overcome in spades. You see, in her academic career, Priscila Coronado has gone where no Latina has gone before. To the top of the Harvard Law Review when she was named its President. The first Latina in its 135-year history.
If you question the stature of such position. President Barack Obama and several Supreme Court Justices are among its alumni.
The child of Mexican immigrants, Coronado was born and raised in Downey, California. She graduated from UCLA Magna Cum Laude in just three years. Her interests have long been focused on community advocacy. Prior to beginning Harvard, she served Community Advocacy Program Coordinator at the Disability Rights Legal Center in UCLA.
Of the accomplishment. Coronado acknowledges and is certainly proud of it, but cautions she is not a needle in a haystack. She told Harvard Law Today that she does not want her achievement to be “morph[ed] into some kind of ‘model minority’ narrative.”
“I believe with every ounce of my soul that there are countless other Latinas who are equally incisive in their logic and reasoning but will never get an opportunity like this,” she says.
We couldn’t agree more, Ms. Coronado, but we are still proud to see you leading the pack.