For the past three years, Cristhian Ponce Barranco has been a dedicated leader in the New York Civil Liberties Union's Teen Health Initiative, a peer education and outreach program that promotes minors' rights to access health care. In this role, Cristhian recruits and trains other peers, presents workshops, lays out the newsletter and brings the reproductive rights message to his own immigrant community. Cristhian has also traveled to Albany as part of the Family Planning Advocates Conference to meet with lawmakers and advocate for reproductive rights.
Cristhian's dedication to civil liberties is all the more impressive in light of his personal obstacles. Due to family circumstances beyond his control, he has been financially self-supporting since last year. Nevertheless, Cristhian not only manages to balance his academic workload, his duties as captain of his cross-country track team and his responsibilities as a peer educator, but he serves them all with exceptional maturity.
“I am proof that there is no obstacle that should prevent anyone from at the least obtaining knowledge of their rights,” said Cristhian. “I am fortunate that I know what my rights are, but not everyone is that lucky. I hope to one day become a citizen but I will always work to defend the rights of immigrants.”
