Only about 28% of women have a leadership role in the legal field system. Kelly Rivera plans on joining that 28%. Kelly Rivera, a senior at West Leyden, who comes from a Mexican family plans on pursuing a career in the legal field system.

Kelly shares what inspired her to pursue that career. She says, “What inspired me was my elementary school teacher because she told me that I was really good at making arguments and that I should probably look at going somewhere in the legal field system.”

Furthermore, Kelly, describes what ignited her love for social studies. She exclaims, “I really love social studies to begin with. I have always loved social studies. 
My mom would always make me watch history documentaries. She’s also a history junkie. So, growing up, on Sundays, I would snuggle up in her bed and we would watch the Discovery Channel, or we would just look at different documentaries and from there, she instilled that love for history in me. 
And because I really love social studies I always tried to put my one hundred percent on any type of social studies material. Also because I really would like to go into something with legal studies, I decided that going into Rho Kappa was probably gonna be really helpful.”

Apart from Kelly’s immense love for social studies, one thing she loves even more is her family. She explains her favorite childhood memory: “My favorite childhood memory is probably when I went biking with my parents and my mom was trying to teach me how to ride a mountain bike although I was like 10 and she ended up falling and everybody started laughing.”

Kelly values giving back to her community. Her favorite service project she participated in was “Participating in the ‘Thanksgiving for the troops’ because we have an opportunity for them to call their families back at home while they’re deployed here. They get to FaceTime or call their relatives and it’s always so cute seeing how excited they are to call them, just a simple call. And being able to talk to them and hear their personal experiences and what led them to where they are right now is really interesting to me. I really love helping them out and giving back to the community.”

Although Kelly is very involved in her academics, she shares one of her favorite ways to spend her free time: “I really enjoy a nice movie night where I could just relax and watch any shows or movies that I need to catch up on.”

Kelly is always someone who isn’t afraid to voice her opinions and stand up for what she believes in. She shares that her favorite amendment is: “The first amendment freedom of speech, because it really reinforces that we all have a voice and that we all have the right to be heard and to have our own opinions, no matter what.”

Kelly’s passion and love for social studies is demonstrated in everything she does from doing her best in her social studies classes to volunteering in her community. While she does all of this, she will also continue to work towards her dream and pursue the legal field system.