Ernesto Chacón
B.A., cum laude, Political Science, 2021
Advisor, Trio-SSS Program, South Seattle College
“To me, an Alfie Scholar is a leader who inspires others to become the change they wish to see in society. Alfie Scholars listen to understand and strive to create a civil world through communication and respect to others with differing opinions.”
Notable: First-generation student
2020 Civility Research Project: Money in Politics: What Can’t Money Buy?
2019 Civility Research Project: Opioids: An Epidemic in America
Transfer Institution: South Seattle College, Associate of Arts, 2018
Service & Work:
Reading Partners
2018 – 2019 and 2019 – 2020
DNDA Nature Consortium Program
2018 – 2019
Food Lifeline 2018–2019
Awards & Honors:
President, Alpha Sigma Nu Jesuit Honor Society, 2020 – 2021
Member, Tau Sigma Honor Society
Alfie Scholars Cohort 4, 2019-2021
Phi Theta Kappa 2018–2019
Ernesto’s Story
As a young man, due to unforeseen circumstances, I had to mature early and to take more responsibility in the upbringing of my brothers. Helping my mother raise my brothers fostered this passion in me to protect people.
Protecting others gives me a sense of joy, but it also fulfills that sense of duty I innately feel. This passion pushed me through barriers that I thought would be insurmountable. This passion was tested in high school when I was at risk of not graduating. However, thanks to the help of a mentor, I enrolled in a summer program that gave me the tools and opportunities I needed to succeed. In that summer, I accomplished many things I thought I could never do. For example, I was able to use past events that once were burdens to me, as motivation for my dreams now.
College always felt like a pipe dream to me. My mother wasn’t able to graduate high school, and my father had only his high school diploma. Even if I had the resources to go to college, I didn’t have the knowledge or understanding of how college worked at all. I put off college for four years, until one day, I decided to break the cycle. I wanted to follow my dreams of being able to go to college. I came to the realization that my life is my own journey and no one else’s.
Though hard work, dedication and continuous passion at my two-year college, I was able to enroll at Seattle University and become an Alfie Scholar. This effort put me one step closer to my dream of becoming a constitutional lawyer that can protect others.
Goals:
My immediate goal is to become a constitutional lawyer after obtaining my degree in Political Sciences. Furthermore, after attaining a subsequent amount of experience, my life goal would be serving on the supreme court. I don’t want this knowledge I will have obtained for selfish reasons alone. I want to use the skills I have learned to inform the people in my community of their rights and liberties and to give them the tools they need to advocate for themselves, so that we may represent ourselves on a national level.
On Civility:
Civility to me is wanting to understand another person on a deeper level and respecting each other’s differences of opinion and belief. As leaders for civility, we must pave the path for others in our communities. When respect and compassion are projected to all people regardless of views, we can have a more honest, respectful, and civil world.
