Fighting poverty, boosting health care: How UPUA’s new president hopes to improve PSU student life
“Rodriguez doesn’t boast the same straight line to Penn State like many students do. Raised alone by a teen mother, Rodriguez moved around often as a child. He experienced a rocky life — mourning the murder of one of his friends in Allentown, sometimes living with his grandparents in Florida and working the maximum number of hours he legally could during high school. For too long, he said, students in leadership positions didn’t share similar ideas or his life experiences. That’s nothing against them, Rodriguez said; it’s just a product of students living in poverty who might’ve only had time to seek part-time work and not political office. Because Rodriguez is in a unique position, he said he plans to make the most of it — even if he wants ‘nothing to do with politics after graduation.’ ‘The help that I received, I want to give back,’ Rodriguez said matter-of-factly.”