From the president
Tzetzangare (Tzetza) Rosas-Perez’s commitment to service and social justice has taken many forms at Oberlin College, and she has already had an extraordinary impact on the greater community at Oberlin and in greater Lorain County. Even among a cohort of dedicated and brilliant Bonner Scholars at Oberlin, Tzetza stands out in the depth and breadth of her commitment to service and social justice. This is perhaps most evident in her work with the El Centro Volunteer Initiative (ECVI), a student organization in partnership with El Centro de Servicios Sociales in Lorain, Ohio. Through ECVI, Tzetza and her colleagues provide both Citizenship and English classes for the Lorain community, alongside helping to fundraise and write grant applications to collect funds for their participants and the organization. Tzetza has sought out ways to incorporate this community-building work into her academic career as well, particularly through an upper-level course with Prof. Gina Perez on “Latinx Oral Histories.” As part of this course, Tzetza and her fellow students took part in the Lorain Oral History Project, and through this work Tzetza has recognized that oral histories have been and continue to be an important tool for uncovering and arching often-overlooked community stories.
Personal Statement
In my three years at Oberlin College, I have had the privilege of working closely with many communities, some that even reflected mine. Coming in as a first-generation low-income student I knew that most of my interest in service would be around finding ways to be engaged directly with the community and its needs. In my first year, I worked with Ms. Vel’s Purple Oasis in Cleveland where I wrote grants for the community garden and the continual development of its space as a source of fresh food and knowledge-enrichment surrounding healthy eating. I then transitioned to El Centro through our program El Centro Volunteer Initiative (ECVI) which is student-run and -managed. I began as a volunteer, helping teach English classes to the Lorain community but quickly moved to be a co-instructor. Currently, I am one of the three Program Coordinators of ECVI and continue organizing resources and volunteers to provide classes to the Lorain community. All the volunteering that I have done and will continue to do is in hopes to dismantle systems that make these resources necessary. Outside of these sites, I have also done Environmental Justice work back in my hometown of Las Vegas.