ADRIANA FIGUEROA-RIVERA

Hometown: Dorado, Puerto Rico
School: University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Major: International Studies
Placement: The Office of Rep. Nydia Velazquez

Adriana was born and raised in Dorado, Puerto Rico by her grandparents and mother. After Hurricane Maria struck her homeland, she moved to Florida, where she stayed with her aunt and uncle to finish her senior year of high school on time. Here, she witnessed the injustices not only towards the Puerto Rican community but to the general Hispanic community, too. She took it upon herself to advocate and give a voice to those unheard by getting an education and making her way to Congress.

Adriana is currently a sophomore at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where she is triple majoring in International Studies, Political Science, and German. Adriana has served as a mentor for two eighth grade students in a Title I school by providing information, guidance, and support for their personal and educational growth. During the Fall semester of 2019, Adriana was one out of a thousand students worldwide chosen for a United Nations program called the Millennium Fellowship. In this program, she worked with other students from her campus to create a curriculum for low-income schools where she developed workshops that taught students about finance, mental health, and life after school. Adriana translated the same curriculum in Spanish for Spanish-speaking students.

As a CHCI Intern, Adriana hopes to gain firsthand experience of how Congress works. In the future, she hopes to become a lawyer to better advocate for the rights of not only Puerto Ricans but also the Hispanic community.