It was not until 2017 that NC State students elected Jackie Gonzalez as first Latinx student body president. While the position demands much on a day-to-day basis, Gonzalez had the added challenge of facing external harassment.

After she entered such a public role, some Facebook users started harassing Gonzalez online. Gonzalez said no NC State students threatened her.

“After I had published my op-ed in support of removing the term ´dixie´ from the alma mater … the messages I received were along the lines of colonial derogatory names that you would call immigrants,” Gonzalez said. “‘Go back to your country’ was also a pretty common one.”

Eventually, the online harassment became so intense Gonzalez worried for her physical safety. She even warned her parents against suspicious packages or strangers approaching their home. Gonzalez said her parents worried she might face real-life retaliation.

“I never thought that it would get this far,” Gonzalez said. “That was difficult to deal with, for sure.”

Gonzalez said she is proud she had such a strong coalition of other student leaders and that with their support, she was able to represent the students’ interests before the University’s administration. 

“Students would walk up to me and tell me, ‘You should tell administration to do this, this and this,’ and it was very empowering to walk into those meetings with administration and the Board of Trustees and say, ‘I have had students tell me this, this and this; students support this or students don’t support this,’” Gonzalez said. “That was really special to me, too.” 

Paul Acuña, a third-year civil engineering Ph.D. student and president of the Latin American Student Association at NC State University, said he thinks it’s important to see leaders such as Gonzalez from your own community.

“Although I wasn’t here when Jackie Gonzalez was student body president, it is certainly nice to see that someone that shares your background was able to reach a top position at NC State,” Acuña said.

Acuña said he feels Gonzalez provides an important role model for other Latinx students on campus.

“She is a role model, and even more than that, she is a real proof that your background doesn’t necessarily need to be a limitation for you to achieve the things that you want to get in your life,” Acuña said.

Besides being part of the Latinx community, Gonzalez emphasized how being a first generation college student added an extra challenge to her college experience.

“It was extremely special — I mean, I’m a first generation college student, my parents are immigrants, so it was new,” Gonzalez said.. “College was a new thing for me and for my family and so navigating that experience was also just extremely new and fun, but also a little scary because we didn’t know what everything entailed and what you needed to do and all those things.”

Gonzalez said she hopes her leadership motivates others to follow in her footsteps. 

“I wanted to be a good example so that other Latinx students could become a leader, too,” Gonzalez said.