Running for the future at 5K to benefit young Latinas
LLT founder Madeline LaSalle and Wendy Marquez. Photo courtesy of Marquez
It wasn’t a love of running but a desire to help other young Latinas that brought Wendy Marquez to Bluemount Park in Arlington last Saturday. The high school junior was one of dozens of runners and walkers who took part in a 5-kilometer run to benefit the nonprofit group Latinas Leading Tomorrow.
The organization has worked with about 200 young women in the greater Washington area since it was founded in 2004. It pairs girls who aspire to college educations with Latina professionals who serve as their mentors and help them prepare for the professional world. Many of the 11- to 18-year-old students are striving to become the first in their families to go to college.
Marquez, who goes to Jeb Stuart High School in Falls Church, started working with the group in October 2013 and graduated from the program in January 2014. She decided to participate in the organization’s Second Annual 5K Run out of desire to help the group provide the services to more young women.
“Where I go to school we don’t have Latina-based programs. With LLT, I get to meet a bunch of professional Latinas. It is very important to have them as role models,” she says.
For Marquez, Latinas Leading Tomorrow offers both opportunity and hope for the future. She was one of five girls selected to intern with professionals in their desire career fields. Marquez, who hopes to study criminal justice in college, interned with a judge at a district court.
“Now I’m thinking about opening my own program at my high school because I want to give interested girls the opportunity I had to meet professional Latinas,” Marquez says. “’Juntos alcanzaremos las estrellas (Together we can reach the stars)’ is our motto, because the sky is our limit.”
—Alexia Constanza
Recent Stories
