La Feria Junior Selected to Represent the U.S. Abroad as Youth Ambassador

Zabdiel Rothschild chosen for exciting trip

When Zabdiel Rothschild and his mother opened the official looking letter from the nation’s capital, they were thrilled again to learn that Zabdiel had been chosen to represent the United States in Columbia through a State Department Youth Ambassador Program. They were doubly-thrilled because last year Zabdiel had been one of 70 high school students selected nation-wide to take part in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s NexGen Program in Washington, D.C.

This year, he explained, he is one of 10 youth traveling to traveling to Washington, D.C. for one week and onward to Colombia in South America for three weeks as part of the

Partners of the America’s U.S. Youth Ambassadors (YA) program this month.

The 10 youth, accompanied by 1 adult mentor, will spend three weeks abroad engaging with local government and civic organizations, building relationships with host families and other youth, visiting schools, and participating in skills-based workshops that empower them to mobilize their communities toward positive change. Upon returning to the U.S., these youth apply what they learned throughout the exchange to actual designing and implementing a service project that benefits their communities.

Rothschild is in the 11th grade at La Feria High School. He found out about the program through a recommendation from CHCI R21 in Washington, D.C. “This seemed like a wonderful opportunity to share cultural and leadership skills,” he said.

The mission of Partners of the Americas is to connect people and organizations across borders to serve and to change lives through lasting partnerships. These partnerships create opportunity, foster understanding, and solve real-life programs.

The program was inspired by President Kennedy and founded in 1964 under the Alliance for Progress. Partners is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization with international offices in Washington, D.C. The program comes under the mission of the U.S. State Department, which purpose is to shape and sustain a peaceful, prosperous, just and democratic world and foster conditions for stability and progress for the benefit of the American people and people everywhere.

LA FERIA NEWS spoke with Zabdiel’s mother. His mother, Dora Rothschild, said she is very proud of her 16-year-old son and his accomplishments, and “I support him in everything he wants to do with his life.” She described him as someone who has a passion for working with people,” she said, adding, “and that will probably be his life.”

We’ll be hearing more about this young leader born in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, who has already s made a name for himself in this country, and now in Colombia, South America. As we say in Texas: “More Power to You.”