Finding it increasingly more difficult to be a teacher, Angelina is pursuing a degree in paralegal studies at Lone Star College to be able to help children in a different way and give a voice to the injustices of harassment. Growing up in a Mexican-American family, Angelina was raised Catholic but had doubts about the credibility of God, Jesus and the bible. She has “seen and experienced the wrath, hatred, bigotry, and racism that came with people who were devout Christians.”

Now agnostic, her secularism is the basis of her fight for women’s rights, LGBT+ civil rights, racial justice, immigration reform, and Native American rights. Angelina is the vice president of the Criminal Law Society and will use the position to enhance her classmates’ knowledge and understanding of criminal justice reform.

The Phoenix Fund is an FFRF member-endowed scholarship fund. Angelina received $1,500.