Ashley Rodriguez Lantigua speaks confidently as she describes her goals, her passions and the people she wants to help. “I definitely want to go to a four-year college, and I think I want to do graduate school,” the 17-year-old Classical High School senior said during a recent interview at The Providence Journal. “I hope to help students that are international students."

She came to this country as a 10-year-old from the Dominican Republic and had to navigate a new country and school system without speaking the language.