An Impressive Path
Christina Vega, who just graduated from Suffield High School, has cut an impressive path through town.
She was selected to represent Connecticut at the Al Neuhart Free Spirit and Journalism conference in Washington last year. She was a Fox-61 Student News contributor. She was a finalist for the University of Connecticut’s Letters About Literature contest. She resurrected the high school’s long-dormant newspaper and served as its editor-in-chief. She was an intern for Hope for Children and Families Foundation in Spring. She was a student liaison for Suffield’s Anti-Biased, Anti-Racist (ABAR) organization. And, just a few months ago, she was named the Distinguished Young Woman of Connecticut and will represent the state this summer at a national conference.
Christina, who will take her talents to Howard University this fall, can now add the 2024 Suffield Observers’ Samuel Spencer Fuller Scholarship to her list of accomplishments.
This isn’t the first time I’ve written about Christina. Without mentioning her by name last year, I wrote about the imbroglio surrounding the collapse of a Black Wall Street event – an ambitious project spearhead by Christina that received little to no support and met irrational resistance at the highest levels of educational leadership in Suffield. Those who knew Christina and witnessed the unbecoming behavior of leaders in town lamented the lonely position into which she was abandoned.
While I am tempted today to call out the powers that be for their shameful display of fear and ignorance in response to the ambitious and noble efforts of a child, I have come to appreciate the indefensible crucible from which Christina emerged.
This young woman, equipped with all the tools that have impressed all who have met her – intelligence, work ethic, intuition, creativity, strength and passion for justice, will succeed at whatever she chooses to do. It is my hope that she continues to pursue journalism. One day, when she wins a major award in journalism by telling the stories for those unable to share their own, by reporting the brutality of injustice, by investigating corruption, or by exposing inequality, I want the powers that be in Suffield to remember they taught her to question authority.
That’s a lesson that can’t be taught in the classroom. That lesson, which some never learn, can only be experienced.
Christina may not choose journalism. She may pursue politics, for which, given its current state, she is eminently qualified. She may choose social justice or activism, for which she has already demonstrated a talent. She’d make a great lawyer. Whatever she chooses, be it education, medicine, art, philosophy or movie making, I am sure she will bring the same indefatigable and ambitious spirit she brought to all her endeavors in Suffield.
And, I believe, she will never take power at its word, and I am hopeful that whatever path she chooses, she will hold power accountable.