As an immigrant and eldest daughter born to a broken family, Kelly has long understood the importance of resilience and bravery. Emboldened by her difficult childhood, rather than controlled, Kelly has learned to turn her shortcomings into successes. With a dedication to education and kindness, Kelly’s spirit and passion shines through in everything she does. Her big heart and smile leave almost as big of an impact on the people around her as her strong-willed advocacy. Ambitious and determined, Kelly works to achieve her dreams – not only for herself – but for every child told they were not good enough.

As founder and president of Benevolentia (Latin for kindness and goodwill), Kelly has devoted herself to activism and philanthropy since thirteen. Formed as a non-profit organization focused on education, awareness, and advocacy, Kelly and her peers leverage journalism to inform their community on current events, raise awareness with social media campaigns, and organize fundraisers to donate resources and money to important social causes. Kelly also serves as president of her school’s chapter of We Rise Above, a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness of, and ending, sexual abuse and violence. Alongside local and national organizations, Kelly has worked hard to put a stop to sexual assault on campus and in her community by organizing self-defense workshops, sexual assault awareness campaigns, and donation-drives for women’s shelters. Finally, with her experience, Kelly hopes to bring change on a national and legislative level as the Director of Campaigns Development at GenerationUp, a student-led social justice organization and student-activist coalition. At GenerationUp, through grassroots activism and collaboration with other like-minded student activists, Kelly strives towards equity in education. She hopes to continue her passions for advocacy throughout her academics as she aims to attend law school, become an attorney, and write legislation to reform the justice system and bring equality to the world.