Introducing, Rodrigo!

Introducing the E4FC Staff!

Rodrigo in red with with the Outreach Team 2012-13.

We will be releasing profiles of our E4FC Staff Members on a weekly basis. At E4FC most of our programs were created and are run by undocumented college graduates with the help of committed allies. Learn more about who we are and what we do!

This week's luck staff member is our Outreach Coordinator.

Tiny stud on the left.

Full name: Jose Rodrigo Dorador Madrigal

Birth place: Tijuana, Baja California Norte, Mexico

Birth date: 01/07/1991

Hometown: Live in Oakland, CA, USA. From Phoenix, AZ

High School: Brophy College Preparatory

College: Santa Clara University

Books or movies? 

Both book open my mind and imagination. I just love film and the visual story telling. 
Chocolate or vanilla? 

Chocolate

Winter or summer? 

Summer in California, Winter in Arizona!  
Crushed ice or cubed ice? 

Cubed ice. Period.
Pancakes or waffles? 

Pancakes.
Sunrise or sunset? 

Sunset. Arizona Sunset. I love the the dashes of purple. 

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

How did you become involved and interested in the undocumented/ DREAMER movement? 

  The Dorador Madrigal Family.

My freshman year in High School I started hanging out with friends to play soccer. As it turns out, one of those guys was undocumented. We found out that we were both undocumented in my sophomore, his senior year. We learned we could go to college in AZ with private scholarships and ever since then I have been active in the movement. My friend became the co-founder of SUFFRAGE, a group that would eventually become the AZ Dream Act Coalition. I joined that group because I knew him and joined in on the marches against Arpaio, McCain and Jan Brewer. 

How did you become involved with E4FC? I got a fellowship to work with an organization over the summer between my junior and senior year in college. I had the fellowship, but no organization and that is when I found E4FC. I joined as a summer Ambassador and later on applied to become an Outreach Ambassador for the academic year because I was interested in doing presentation to the community to empower them and give them the intel and tools to overcome the challenges that come with being undocumented, from the concrete challenges of not having a license to feelings of marginalization and deep depression. Eventually, I also applied for the Outreach Coordinator position, and that is what I do today. 

What do you do at E4FC? I serve as the Outreach Coordinator. I am dedicated to supporting and developing our team of Outreach Ambassadors in public speaking, narrative building, content expertise and emotional/personal/spiritual development. I also make sure all of our requests for presentation are handled with professionalism and in a timely manner. 

What has been the most rewarding experience at your position in E4FC? The most rewarding experience I've had at E4FC has been becoming the Outreach Coordinator. This coming June I will be finishing my first year in the position and it has been very rewarding to bring in a team of Ambassadors, watch them grow personally and professionally. It has been a blessing to be a part of the staff at E4FC because they are all so living and caring. The reason this is all rewarding is because it has been tough for me to be far from my family who still lives in Phoenix. It has also been hard for me as an undocumented student to really know what I want to do in the future. All I know right now is that I want to serve my community and empower other undocumented young people to not give up on their dreams. I think being at E4FC has allowed me to do this and has also provided me with a second family. 

Rodrigo May Day 2013

How has E4FC made you grow personally and professionally?  I have grown tremendously as a person and a professional in the short year I have been here. I feel more responsible. I take the work I do very seriously. I feel I am more caring because I see the compassion the staff all have for each other. I think that is part of the magic that makes E4FC so great. That we take care of each other and uphold everyone we come into contact with whether they are our long term volunteers, or individuals we meet during outreach. Professionally, I also think I have learned many skills and now have developed a passion for continuing to learn how to develop leaders. 

Could you please tell us a story about one of your embarrassing moments? I was once getting a massage. I was lying face down and the masseuse just pressed on the wrong nerve and it caused me to fart. Yeah, it was awkward. It was loud, too.

If you could meet one person, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Rodrigo and Bob Ryan, Principal at Brophy.

I would love to meet Jesus of Nazareth, popularly known as Jesus Christ. I went to Jesuit School for 8 years of my life and have done major theological studying while at both schools. I took a class were Jesus was talked not as the savior of humanity, but as a political activist. This was back in high school and it was such a radical thought that the principal of my high school was teaching me. I fell in love with learning about Jesus and his logic for having his beliefs and proclaiming the Kingdom of God. To this day there is so much folklore about who this man was, whether he was divine or human or fully both that I just want to meet him and talk with him and ask about his true beliefs and how he ran his political challenge to the Pharisees and his other contemporaries. How is it that so many people in the history of the modern world are touched by your legacy? Is this what you though you would set off? Is this what you wanted your legacy to be?

Read more about Rodrigo's Bio here!