Greenville High School 2006 grad Ana Maria Rea has dedicated her life to helping students and families who are facing the same problems she came up against when she was younger. Ana Maria is the Vice President of Advocacy at the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) and strives to help every student in the state she calls home achieve their dreams.   

Ana Maria was born and raised in Mexico City until the age of 10. In 1998, she and her family migrated to Texas. While she was learning English as a fifth grader at Lamar Elementary, Ana Maria said her reading teacher Dru Ann Jamison (formerly Mrs. Thompson) was a huge inspiration. 
 

"She always encouraged me to keep trying despite feeling discouraged because I couldn't understand the words. Her patience and kind approach to teaching me to read English made all the difference in creating confidence while learning a second language," she said. 

Today, Ana Maria is the woman leading advocacy at the largest immigration organization in Texas. 
 

"I want every student who is struggling with significant change to know that they are powerful just the way they are," she said. "Nothing can stop them from accomplishing their dreams because there are many of us out there who look like them, speak like them, and come from the same places they do, who support them with resources and uplift their voices!"
 

Ana Maria earned a degree in international relations at Austin College and has completed programs in comparative international law and policy at George Mason University and American University in Washington D.C. While in D.C., she worked for the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute and the political consulting firm, Solidarity Strategies. She has also worded with AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps in various volunteer positions.   

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