Passion and Drive

The Roger Williams University inaugural group of Hassenfeld Fellows featured seven students who had been trained to lead their own interdisciplinary community project. Recent graduate Virgina Albert, who has her sights set on one day becoming an attorney, was among one of those students selected for their outstanding academic scholarship and passion for working on community issues.

In her senior year, Albert worked with the Immigration Law, Education & Advocacy Project in Fall River, Mass., where she assisted lawyers in translating Haitian Creole and in preparing refugee and asylum cases for low-income families who cannot afford to pay for legal help. A double major in psychology and philosophy, she was also an Intercultural Leadership Ambassador, an officer of the Multicultural Student Union, a Resident Assistant and an Admissions Ambassador.

Albert says that the work "positively impacted the lives of the individuals and their families by helping them get the proper legal documents together that are necessary to get a job, a license, and many other basic needs to properly start a new life in the United States.” For that alone she was grateful to have had the opportunity to help.