Ernesto Chacon
Quick Facts
Age: 25
SU Major: Political Science, 2021
Notable: First-generation student
Transfer Institution: South Seattle College, Associate of Arts, 2018
“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.”
Service & Work:
Reading Partners
2018–2019 and 2019–2020
DNDA Nature Consortium Program
2018–2019
Food Lifeline 2018–2019
Awards & Honors:
Alfie Scholars Cohort 2019
Messina Scholarship 2019
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:
I define civility as the means to value our differences and exercise kindness, mutual respect and understanding with each other. Civility asks us to be mindful of our interactions with people because words can be powerful. We need to realize that the world is not black and white. There are many sides to a story. Therefore, civility begins within us through our responsibility and compassion to our community.
