{"id":24759,"date":"2025-05-06T10:00:38","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T14:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=24759"},"modified":"2025-04-28T10:33:44","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T14:33:44","slug":"california-student-ava-cuevas-wins-5000-vegetarian-resource-group-2025-college-scholarship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/06\/california-student-ava-cuevas-wins-5000-vegetarian-resource-group-2025-college-scholarship\/","title":{"rendered":"CALIFORNIA STUDENT AVA CUEVAS WINS $5,000 VEGETARIAN RESOURCE GROUP 2025 COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIP"},"content":{"rendered":"

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My love and passion for animals and a just food system for all beings, started with my curious and animal loving 7-year-old self. As I ate chicken nuggets and burger patties, I began to question where exactly meat came from. I understood it came from an animal, but the process of the animal becoming food was still unclear to me. I began bombarding my parents with questions on where exactly meat came from, and after the realization of knowing I was eating an animal that I loved and didn\u2019t want to die was all I needed to hear to vow to never eat another animal in my life. So, at the age of 7, I became a vegetarian completely on my own. Being further educated on the abuses that animals like hens and mother cows still faced in the egg and dairy industries, I became vegan at 13.<\/p>\n

My successes within my animal and plant-based advocacy have come in significant ways compared to when I was a 9-year-old who collected funds to donate to animal sanctuaries. I lobbied on Capitol Hill to staffers of California senators and representatives on supporting bills expanding plant-based meals in K-12 schools. I was the head facilitator in groups meetings with U.S. Department of Agriculture providing them with student testimonies and limitations faced by the lack of plant-based options. In 2022 I published an op-ed in L.A. Weekly<\/em>, speaking upon the importance of plant-based meals in schools.\u00a0I believe one of my greatest successes in collaboration with other youth advocates was a youth started and led panel at the Animal and Vegan Advocacy (AVA) Summit. Myself along with three other youth leaders, orchestrated a panel titled, \u201cHow to Empower Youth in the Vegan Movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduating from undergrad in political science, I envision myself going to law school to become a lawyer. There will never be a day where I question my veganism. I simply cannot ever envision myself feeling comfortable in taking the life of a sentient being for the justification of food. If my food choices can prevent me from being a direct supporter of abuses, then I will forever choose my plant-based life.<\/p>\n

Support Young Veg Activists <\/em><\/p>\n

To send support for additional scholarships and internships, donate at www.vrg.org\/donate<\/a> or call (410) 366-8343. You can also send a donation to VRG, P.O. Box 1463, Baltimore, MD 21203.<\/p>\n

Do you know an amazing student promoting veganism? If so, let them know about our annual scholarship contest. The deadline for high school seniors is February 20th<\/sup> of each year. To see scholarship rules and past winners, visit www.vrg.org\/student\/scholar<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My love and passion for animals and a just food system for all beings, started with my curious and animal loving 7-year-old self. As I ate chicken nuggets and burger patties, I began to question where exactly meat came from. I understood it came from an animal, but the process of the animal becoming food […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24761,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24759\/revisions\/24761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}