#i2amru (I, Too, Am Reinhardt) Volume 1 Number 1 | Page 20

Irie’s ultimate goal is to one day
work for CNN and have her own
programming, much like her
idol Anderson Cooper. Her main
goal is to educate, as she is apt to
indicate, “One of the reasons I
want to be a journalist is because
I believe that journalists are the
pioneers in public thought. A lot
of the ways people think now...
I think there’s an emphasis on the
wrong things. Too much emphasis on entertainment rather than
being educated. People are not
going out to get the real facts. I
aim to do just that.”
Irie emphasizes that she wants to
work in a field where she will not
be relegated to the background
and where she will be able to
shine.

“As a dark-skinned African young
woman with natural hair, I want to
be one of the pioneers of helping
people think about black beauty
and what it means to be black, also.
I want to be one of the people that
spears pride in African-ness, in
blackness, in natural beauty because a lot of black women are
bleaching and doing a lot of things
to change their appearance instead
of just accepting themselves,” she
says, her eyes misty.

“I want to be
the next
Vanessa!”

Overcoming Cultural Barriers
By Dulce Galindo

Irie is pictured here with Dr. Walter
May, Assistant Dean of Students and
Director of Student Activities, whom
she praises for helping increase
diversity at Reinhardt.
Having overcome hurdles to finally
accept herself for who she is, Irie
comprehends why there are still
today people who are unable to embrace who they are. She is also grateful to Reinhardt for having played
a large role in shaping her into who
she is today and who she can help
Because of her experiences and high
achievements at Reinhardt, Vanessa
Irie now strongly believes that she
is more readily capable of accomplishing her goals and achieving her
dreams. She wants to have her own
talk show and, eventually, her own
magazine.
When a comparison to her being
the ‘next Oprah’ is drawn, Irie immediately quips back, “No, I want to
be the next Vanessa!”

And indeed she will be. In fact, she
already is.

(Photos courtesy of Vanessa Irie)
20

Vanessa Irie is an Ivorian living and making
the most of the American Dream.

“Her perseverance and attitude
make her a unique individual. She
embodies what it means to be kind
and serve God. She’s simply amazing,” says Ivan Perez to describe his
fiancée, Ivonne Perez, taking care to
place emphasis on the word
amazing.

Her new life began in California, where she stayed for only
one week with family members;
she then moved to New Jersey
and lived there for a year.
Ivonne found life in the U.S.
fairly easy to adapt to. “California,” she explained, “is as close
to Mexico as you can think.”
In California, she found a lot of
Hispanic people who, like her,
also migrated from their home
country.

The amazing Ivonne Perez is a
20-year-old Mexican student who,
since moving to the United States
in 2005, has been taking down barriers and pursuing her dreams.
Ivonne was born in Tlalpan, Mexico, on November 1, 1994. In 2005,
she moved here with her mother
and her younger brother to start a
new life—a journey that she at first
did not wish to embark upon.
In Mexico, Ivonne’s life had been
going according to plan--she had
really high grades, and she was
about to be part of La Escolta,
which is a group of students who
have the highest grades in the
school and who, every Monday,
have the privilege of holding the
Mexican Flag and marching in
front of the school. If you become
part of La Escolta, that means you
have achieved the highest honor
that you could be a v&FVBगf