KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 10, 2023 \u2013 Tatiana Freitas wasn\u2019t going to let her younger brother, Geovanni, be the first in the family to graduate from college. His drive and determination, along with her family\u2019s encouragement to pursue higher education, kept her on track even when she was experiencing personal challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI came into college not knowing what I wanted to do,\u201d Freitas said. \u201cI started off in a different major that wasn\u2019t for me. Then I asked myself, \u2018What does it mean to pass onto the next generation?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is when she decided to pursue a degree in elementary education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As an Afro-Latina woman from Providence<\/strong>, Freitas felt that she could be a role model and relate to students of different cultural backgrounds. With Cape Verde and Dominican heritage, claiming her identity has been very important to her because, \u201cmy skin color wasn\u2019t always welcome,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At URI, she immediately felt a sense of belonging and positive reinforcement, especially from the Talent Development program faculty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was uncomfortable for me at first to be the only person of color in the room. That changed the more I received support from faculty from both (Talent Development and School of Education) departments as well as from my late uncle, Dr. Earl Smith,\u201d she said. (Dr. Smith was an assistant dean in the URI College of Arts and Sciences).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Emphasizing the value of education isn\u2019t a common conversation in many multicultural households and isn\u2019t an expectation, she said, and she wants to change that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI want to provide my students with the support that I received at URI through the Talent Development program and student organizations. It\u2019s the reason I made it through. I want them to know that there are lots of resources available that they can use, like I did,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Freitas said that her roles as a resident assistant in Hopkins Hall, an executive board member of the Cape Verdean Student Association, and her strong Christian faith also contributed to her academic success and gave her valuable life lessons. \u201cMy relationship with God has given me the discipline to speak up for myself and for those who cannot speak for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just before Commencement, Freitas completed her student teaching assignment at the Broad Rock Middle School in Wakefield, a school she said allowed her to be true to her identity, while helping her learn more classroom management skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She also wants to inspire her students to stand up for themselves but be kind and respectful in the process. \u201cThis is something I didn\u2019t teach them, I showed them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Freitas sees the future of education changing to meet students\u2019 needs in different developmental stages. She wants to explore various ways to measure a student\u2019s knowledge besides tests or unrealistic standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTatiana will be the kind of teacher who lifts others up, both at her school and beyond. Students in her classroom will have a teacher who overflows with compassion. They will know a teacher who is deeply committed to justice and equity. She will walk beside them on a journey to who they are becoming, and will look at each opportunity to teach as an opportunity to grow alongside her students,\u201d said Virginia Killian Lund, URI assistant professor of elementary English language arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Freitas\u2019 commitment to socially just educational opportunities goes beyond the lessons in the classroom, as evidenced by the StudaKuCabesa fundraiser that she organized last summer to collect donations and school supplies, and deliver them to the school districts in \u00d3rg\u00e3os<\/em>,<\/em> Santiago, Cape Verde, where her grandmother hails from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis was a big part of me implementing being a global citizen, which I learned from my studies at URI, into my life outside of academics. The kids that were helped were very grateful to receive the support and be given a greater opportunity to expand their education.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s next for Tatiana Freitas?<\/p>\n\n\n\n She is considering ministry. And will use the skills that she has attained at URI to advocate for educational equity around the world and continue bridge gaps of indifferences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 10, 2023 \u2013 Tatiana Freitas wasn\u2019t going to let her younger brother, Geovanni, be the first in the family to graduate from college. His drive and determination, along with her family\u2019s encouragement to pursue higher education, kept her on track even when she was experiencing personal challenges. \u201cI came into college […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4629,"featured_media":14356,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4629"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/education\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}