Welcome to The Waterbury Talks. I'm your host, Grant Copeland. Our conversation is with Daiana Lilo. Over the last decade, the City of Waterbury has made major investments in its educational system, including the building of three new schools. Today, we're outside one of those schools, Waterbury Career Academy, which exposes students to four career pathways that align with the economic needs of the Greater Waterbury region. Daiana Lilo is the school's valedictorian from its second cohort. Here Diana discusses her path to graduating from Harvard, the start of her career in law, and the advocacy that has garnered her international acclaim. Plus, she offers some pointed words about the quality of education in Waterbury. It's a quick but powerful conversation, as The Waterbury Talks, with Daiana Lilo. hi, my name is Diana Lilo and I am a native of Waterbury. I graduated from Waterbury Career Academy in 2018. and then I went to Harvard College where I graduated in 2022 with a degree in government with high honors and a minor in data science. So what was it like growing up in Waterbury? I've really enjoyed growing up in Waterbury. I feel like the diversity and the culture has taught me a lot. even though I was born abroad, I consider Waterbury my hometown because I've lived here since the age of two. And growing up in Waterbury and going through the Waterbury public school system was also great for my learning and development. Because since I immigrated from Europe, and specifically from Albania, I spoke Albanian. And if I didn't have the ESL classes I had in Waterbury schools, I would not have been able to learn or catch up like the other students were. And I feel like I would have only had those classes because I went to Waterbury and Waterbury accepts such diversity and culture. So I feel like living here has really helped me in school. It's helped me understand people's cultures and the diversity and has really shaped my perspective for the rest of my life. tell us about your experience here at Waterbury career Academy. I was the second cohort to attend Waterbury Career Academy, and I remember being in middle school and hearing that a brand new high school was opening up. And honestly, I was so excited. You know, I wanted to experience a brand new school, and it just seemed so shiny and new from all the pictures I was seeing, and I was thrilled. And I know a lot of people had their worries, people were a bit worried that it's a brand new school, it would be unstructured, But honestly for me, I thought that was the beauty of WCA. Because it was a new school and there was just, my year and the year above me, we got to shape the culture and the personality of WCA. The school became what the students wanted it to be, not what, a school should originally be. for example, we were able to start our own clubs and extracurriculars and whatever we needed, the school would provide. That was the great thing, I knew I wanted to do government in college. I wanted to study government. So junior year, I went to the principal and I said, I want an AP government class. I want them to teach AP government here because that's what I want to do in school. And he goes, okay, we'll set it up for you. And then boom, next year, senior year, I took AP gov. And that really helped me for college and it helped my learning experience and I feel like the experiences of other students. And that's something you can't do at every school. That's something you can do at a place like Career Academy. And I was really thankful. And then also, as many people know, WCA has its strands. we have manufacturing, and IT, and human services, and health. And so for people who, didn't want to take the more, college level route, which is completely okay. They're able to join the workforce right after due to all the experience and knowledge that they gain from the skills of the strands that I feel like other schools can't really provide. tell the audience about applying to Harvard, And then how WCA ultimately prepared you for the rigors of an Ivy League school. I knew ever since entering high school that I wanted to go to college. You know, that was going to be my next level for me. And, considering what college to go to, it's always a scary thing. You never know, what's the place for you? Do you want to stay in state? Do you want to go out of state? the options are just so endless. I really enjoyed going here to WCA because so many college tours were provided. We had college fairs, and it helped make my decision easier. Over the summer of my junior year, I started looking at the Ivy Leagues. And honestly, that's because of the teachers here at WCA that told me I was smart enough, I was good enough, and I could do it. You know, I could be one of those students that got in. And so I was considering many schools. I considered Yale and I considered Georgetown and I considered Harvard. And I ultimately fell in love with the campus at Harvard, the classes, just the culture there, but of course I was afraid to apply. I was like, I'm just this, this regular girl from a city they're not even going to look at my application. I was going to apply early to Georgetown. I thought, maybe that would be just a bit easier to get in and I feel like I could do that. And then after talking to my counselors and my teachers that supported me so much, I realized that why couldn't I go to Harvard? I've had just as good an education as everybody else did. And I applied early in November, and I got in in December, and it was a really great experience, and having the support of the school around me felt really great. And then later on, my classmates also got into so many great schools, and I was just so happy to be part of that community. And then one thing a lot of people ask me when I got in is that, Do you think you'll be ready for the Ivy League? do you feel like this school will help you compared to, students that went to, private schools and go to Harvard? that worried me a bit when people would say that, and it gave me some type of, imposter syndrome. I'm like, am I really ready for this? And then all of those fears were so unwarranted when I got onto campus. Because, let me tell you something. You go to Harvard your first semester, you take four classes. You take a gen ed, you take an intro class, and you take a seminar. It has around 12 to 15 people. That's nothing. My senior year at WCA, I took seven classes. Four AP, two UConn, and one NVCC. I took seven college classes. So, that's rigorous. The rigorous, Time for me was WCA. I had the opportunity to take all those hard level courses and I learned so much. I learned what it meant to study and I learned what it meant to write a 15 page paper that I feel like I wouldn't have gotten, if I didn't push myself in high school. So I think I was more prepared when I went to college because I had that experience in school. And not only did I do those classes, I also worked at the Waterbury Health Department. I was president of the National Honor Society. So clearly I had a lot on my plate. So, doing all of that, and then, applying to college and being valedictorian, I learned a lot about responsibility that I was able to carry with me when I went to Harvard and setting up my schedule there. After Harvard, what did you do in your career? during Harvard, I knew I always wanted to work in government and law. And, already as a freshman, I was like, what am I going to do after college? And thankfully, over the summers, I did a lot of internships, focused in politics and law. I started one internship in Arizona at the Arizona Democratic Party. And then I worked at the Yale School of Environment and Law and Policy as a research assistant. And then I even got to work on the Biden campaign, which I thought was a really cool experience. And I got to meet the first lady. but okay, I did my little bit in politics and policy. I knew that I wanted to go to law school. So after Harvard, I ended up taking a job as a paralegal in a law firm in Manhattan, where I currently live now, where I practice commercial litigation, and I really enjoy it. Living in New York, although it was overwhelming at first, I really got used to it. I ended up loving the hustle and bustle of the city. And I feel that living in Waterbury prepared me for living in New York, you know? It's a big diverse population here, a lot of culture, a lot of community, and that's what New York is. It's just a bit bigger. And working in a law firm, it made me sure I wanted to go to law school and be a lawyer. I loved being in the courtroom. I loved working with clients and getting to hear about their cases and helping do what's best for them. Because I work at a smaller law firm, I get to read these documents. I get to help write motions for them. And it's all so exciting. And then, of course, I love to hear when the lawyers argue with opponents and do oral arguments and take that positions. It's all just such an exciting world that I'm really grateful to be a part of. Beyond all the other things you're doing. Tell us about your advocacy for stateless individuals. I feel like my advocacy for statelessness and immigration, something I'm really passionate about actually began in Waterbury during my graduation from Waterbury Career Academy, where as valedictorian, I gave my speech coming out as undocumented and a DACA recipient. Ever since then, I joined a lot of immigration groups. mostly focused on being undocumented in the United States and being a DACA recipient. Eventually, I learned that I was stateless. Which, for those of you who don't know, because it's honestly a very unfamiliar term, means that I'm just not, not just a citizen of the United States. I'm not a citizen of anywhere in the world. Because of complications around the legality of where I was born and who my parents were, I ended up getting a passport nowhere. And because of that, not only am I undocumented here, but I face a lot of challenges If I ever, got the ability to go abroad, I couldn't do that. And, it's something that, because it's so unfamiliar to people in this country, and there's only around 200, 000 stateless people in the country, there's not much legislation on it. So I work with a group called United Stateless that works to, teach people about statelessness and show people that yes, it's a legal issue, but it's also a humanitarian one. we're people with families and we can't have our lives decided by laws made by people that... Don't even understand what kind of struggles we've gone through. And, we've done a lot of work so far. I've gotten to, write and speak about this issue a lot with my organization. We have filmed a little documentary called Citizens of Nowhere And it tells my story and the stories of other members of my group. And then finally, on August 1st, 2023, the United States Department of Homeland Security officially recognized stateless people in the country because surprisingly enough, people who are stateless here weren't even recognized because we're such a small number. So now that people are finally seeing, yes, they're here and this is an important issue. I feel like they'll do more about it. And so, even though we've done so much in our organization and I'm so proud of the work we've done, there's so much more to do. So last question People who perceive Waterbury in a certain way, particularly the school system here, thinking that it's subpar. Like you mentioned, your opportunity is at a certain level, but you can't go to an Ivy League. You can't go accomplish what you want in your career. What would you say in rebuttal to that? growing up in Waterbury, I've heard a lot of people say Waterbury schools are not that good. It's a subpar education. I thought I would never even end up at an Ivy League because that's what some people told me. And to people who say that Waterbury is subpar or that our schools are subpar, I want to tell them that, You're the issue. When you continuously tell students that where they go to school is subpar, you're telling the student that they're subpar. You're telling them that they'll never accomplish anything because they don't have the means to. And when people hear that all the time, it Takes you down. You start believing that you can't accomplish your dreams because of the situations you have, but there's nothing wrong with our situation. We should be thankful to grow up in a bustling city with so many diverse people and so many cultures and just be a part of all of it. There's nothing wrong with the Waterbury school system. When I applied to college, I had so many teachers and counselors that were there to help me out and, give me anything I needed. these teachers care about their students and they want to see them thrive and accomplish all their dreams. But it's hard when you have people tell you that you're not going to be able to do it. So there's nothing subpar about Waterbury. We're full of heart, we're full of determination, and we can do so many great things. People just have to give us more credit. And I feel like, we've been seeing that throughout the years. when I was a junior in high school, I saw someone the year above me go to Yale, and I thought, wow, if they could do it, I could probably do that too. And so I did, I applied to Harvard with the support of Waterbury Career Academy and the support of my city. And I was able to do it. And then I feel like once I did that, more students felt that they were able to do so. So after I graduated and I went off to Harvard, I wasn't the last to do that. So many students in career have achieved so much. And so many students in Waterbury overall have gone to such amazing schools and are doing such amazing work. Let it be in college or in the workforce. There is nothing subpar about these students and the city. And we should all be grateful to be living here and to have the opportunities that we've received here. Listen to the full series from The Waterbury Talks and learn more about the public schools, the educational depth throughout Waterbury, and all the city offers at thewaterberry.com