Esmeralda Duran

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“I thank pivotal people at every crossroads that I have come to in my life for supporting me, and allowing me to have the confidence to truly believe in myself. I have learned that potential is nothing if one does not have the right people in one’s life.”

  • Program: 2009 Graduate Scholarship Recipient
  • Resides: Paris, Ile-de-France
  • Hometown: Fort Worth, TX
  • Age: 23

Biography

PROFILE: Like many children of Mexican immigrants, she spoke no English until she started kindergarden in the United States. But with hard-working and dedicated parents that instilled in her a desire to succeed, Esmeralda has accomplished some amazing feats and will begin graduate school soon in Paris. During her last semester in college, her 90-year-old grandfather came from Mexico to visit her in Fort Worth.  When her grandfather learned she would be moving to France, she saw a gleam in his eyes, looked at her and told her in Spanish: “I’m proud of you.” Esmeralda’s story is truly a “rags to riches” saga that many would say could happen “only in America.” With only vague and rather farsighted plans to attend college, Esmerada was working at a summer job a few weeks after her high school graduation when a co-worker encouraged her to apply at the 11th hour to the local community college. That advice was worth its weight in gold. Esmeralda excelled at Tarrant Community College, became a Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Scholar, finished her degree at Southern Methodist University (SMU), and now lives in “The City of Lights”. She’ll soon begin graduate school with the hope of becoming a television network correspondent.

 INSPIRATION: A sociologist at SMU, Dr. Dalia Abdelhady, provided Esmeralda with advice and caring counsel during a research fellowship in France in 2008. The project involved interviewing Franco-Maghrebins (second-generation French young men and women of North African heritage). It allowed Esmeralda to disover “a deeper reality about my place in the world.” She saw in the Franco-Maghrebins the same sense of alienation she felt as a young Mexican-American everywhere in society. “Dr. Abdelhady held my hand through over a year of soul searching.”
 
ASPIRATION: Her initial goal following graduate school in Europe is to become a polical analyst for a major news network. Eventually she would like to attend law school.
 
MAKING A DIFFERENCE: Esmeralda’s research fellowship in Paris involved studying the social, cultural, and economic justice that second-generation (those born in France) Franco-Maghrebins face. Witnessing and studying the bias they face daily in Paris, the experience has reinforced her desire to become a journalist. 
 
ACCOLADES: She was awarded the Richter International Fellowship by SMU which allowed her to begin her studies in Europe. In addition, she was honored with SMU’s Profiles in Excellence Award.
 
INTERESTING FACT: Esmeralda has kept a journal since she was six-years-old. She’s also a “taco connoisseur, therefore snob, since I worked at a Mexican taqueria as a teenager.”

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