Manuel wrote: “The smell of chuleta (pork chops) filled my small New York City apartment. Every morning, I would wake up to my mom flipping tortillas on our black rusty stove. This would bring me back to my birth country, Honduras. Before my mom brought me to the United States, I lived in Honduras in a sea coast town where Mother Nature was prevalent around me. When I moved to Queens, New York, I felt like I was in limbo. NYC will always be my city, but I always felt my connection with nature was limited. My body felt like it was covered in chains and I could only stretch so far. My mom would tell me that when I was young, I would play with baby chicks and jump on dogs. Although I had a more intimate connection with nature back in Honduras, I wasn’t going to let my urban environment limit my passion. For me, the quickest and easiest way to feel a bond with Mother Nature was to change my eating habits. I personally felt eating a carcass wasn’t very appetizing. This was conflicting at the time because I also didn’t want to have the culture disconnect since a lot of the foods from my country incorporated different types of meat. One night I truly thought about this new lifestyle I wanted to convert to. I realized that my favorite cultural foods were already vegetarian: sopa de frijoles, baleada, etc. I was finally able to begin this new way of life.”

Manny created a club in high school to promote vegetarianism. He wrote a newsletter that included a vegetarian recipe and information about environmental issues. In addition, he promoted vegetarianism through the school Model Congress Debate Club. A reference wrote that in one debate, “He ended by saying that ‘What makes my life more valuable than those birds?’ I can’t say he turned the room into vegetarians, but what I can say is he left the room questioning why humans are superior and other species are inferior. I began thinking to myself, “Why do humans get a pass on taking life away?” The Reference continued, “Anytime I ask for help at our food pantry, Manny is the first person to help unload hundreds of heavy boxes filled with fruits and vegetables for our community. He is the type of person who takes action rather than complaining about his problems, and is extremely eager to help others.”

Manny wrote, “Veganism to me is giving an animal another chance at life … This scholarship will give me the opportunity to change the life of my family. I will have the chance to walk down an American college campus, something my ancestors would kill for. Of course, I don’t mean to actually kill as that would be counterintuitive to my lifestyle. Being vegan to me is synonymous with humility and humbleness, and knowing that we aren’t superior to other species…”

Manny is enrolled in Animal Science at Cornell University. He is participating in the Cornell Speech and Debate team and will be doing an informative speech on vegetarianism for the next semester. He said, “I plan on going to graduate school to receive my Doctor of Veterinary Medicine licenses and PhD.”

For information on other scholarship winners and applying for the next Vegetarian Resource Group college scholarship contest, see https://www.vrg.org/student/scholar.htm Deadline is February 20th of each year.