Rodrigo Vega is History’s latest Davee Scholarship Winner
Rodrigo Vega (History '28) has a dream to one day work as an attorney for the ACLU or the NAACP. Inspired by the power of historically powerful legal decisions that went on to shape social justice movements, Vega wants to go to law school and become an attorney specializing in constitutional law. "I want to protect people's civil liberties and civil rights," he says.
Financial hardship almost put this dream on hold. Fortunately, due to lots of hard work and a little bit of luck, Vega is now back on track to go after his dream.
Vega, a first-year History major at UIC, is the latest winner of the Davee Foundation Scholarship for high-achieving History and English undergraduates. The award, established in 2019 and named after Adeline Barry Davee and Ruth Dunbar Davee, reflects the benefactors’ generosity and love for the disciplines of History and English. Each of those Departments awards one Davee scholarship a year. Winners receive the full cost of attendance at UIC until graduation for up to five years and must maintain at least a 3.0 GPA.
For Vega, hearing he was the latest Davee Scholarship winner was unbelievable news. It meant he could continue his education. Vega grew up in the Hermosa neighborhood of Chicago and went to high school at the selective Jones College Prep School in Printer's Row. After graduating from Jones, Vega worked as a packer at a warehouse to save money for college. But despite being on his feet all summer, he had saved only enough money for one semester of tuition. At the end of his first semester, he was facing difficult choices. Reaching out to members of the Department of History led Vega to be considered for the Davee.
"The first thing I did was call my mom," he said. "She couldn't believe it. We were so excited."
Vaga's mom went to college in Mexico, but her degree did not transfer to the United States. She was a single mom, and she and her son were "like a team" in his younger years. "It was just the two of us for the first half of my life," he says. She eventually found a partner and had two other children, who Rodrigo spent much of his high school years helping take care of. His sisters are now ten and seven.
Vega hopes winning a Davee will inspire his sisters to work hard and not be afraid to put themselves out there. "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take," he says, reflecting on his first few emails to members of the Department of History.
Vega had planned to rush through college in order to mitigate expenses, getting to law school as quickly as possible. He had enough AP credits from high school that, with some extreme pushing, he could graduate in a crunched three years. Now that he has the Davee Award, though, he plans to take four years, do a minor in either English literature or Communications, and continue to take a large number of History courses on his way to law school. He has already taken the History of the Holocaust and loved how much he learned. He's currently taking Latino/a History with Prof. Lilia Fernandez.
His goal remains law school. "Majoring in History will give me a better understanding of why laws were passed, to whose benefit, and how the public can alter policy through legal means," he says. He wants to use his degree to make change for the better.