Right out of high school, my grades were great, and I was lucky enough to receive a full ride scholarship to the local community college. Unfortunately, while my mind was ready for the hard work ahead of me, my maturity still had a lot of learning to do. I found myself making poor choices and became pregnant at the young age of 18. I left school to support my child as a single parent. I worked hard, eventually getting into a university. The struggle of balancing full time school, working part time, and raising my daughter got the best of me, and I had to leave school to work full time to support my family. I felt like a failure and a poor role model to my child, but I knew that I continued to work hard, I could move mountains. I finally got my chance in 2016, where I was able to enroll in an online program at my university. I was able to continue to work full time and ultimately receive my degree. Ten years prior, I thought leaving school was the end of my academic career. With the support of friends, family, and coworkers, though, I never lost sight of my goal or my potential. I graduated in 2017, and now, five years later, I seek to continue the next step of my education in graduate school. When I became a teen parent, I knew the statistics, prejudices, and assumptions that would be stacked against me. I knew that I was going to have to work harder than others my age. It took me a while to overcome adversity, but in the end, I was able to be someone my daughter could look up to and continue to strive to be my best.

My name is El Simmons, and I am a nonbinary Latinx person with over 15 years of public library experience. I was one of the lucky children in my low income Hispanic community to find a safe haven in my public library and my youth librarian. From the moment she came to my after school program, handing out free books and telling us how we could borrow more, I was hooked on everything the library had to offer. As I grew older, she cultivated this enthusiasm, providing me with volunteer positions, programming opportunities, and eventually getting me in the door to my first job interviews. I was able to develop my programming and community outreach skills, becoming a paraprofessional library assistant specializing in teen programming, where I could continue to serve as a positive role model and resource for community teens. I knew I wanted to become a librarian since I was a teenager. Unfortunately, I had to navigate many challenges that kept me from pursuing higher education; teen pregnancy and abusive relationships meant dropping out of college and working full time for many years. I eventually was able to go back to school after a five year hiatus, graduating in December 2017 with a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication and Media Studies. Despite my education setbacks, I have been able to accomplish much as a paraprofessional library assistant/ associate. In my time working for Chandler Public Library in Arizona, I planned and organized LibCon, the first teens-only library pop culture convention, growing from 75 attendees to over 300 in just a few years. After my colleague wrote about it in VOYA Magazine, the trend quickly spread across the country. In Arlington County, Virginia, I was able to establish a gender inclusive data policy for library patrons and work with a team of county employees to set up an inclusive restroom and locker room access policy for all county facilities. On leaving the county, the library director Diane Kresh noted, “El has been with us for five years and in that time has demonstrated excellent customer service skills…Their enthusiasm and commitment to the mission of Outstanding [LGBTQIA+ employee resource group] will be difficult to replace. Many thanks to El for their service to our library community.” It is this continuing community service that pushes me towards graduate school and the Master of Library & Information Studies program. The program’s focus on types of libraries and special interest areas will allow me to explore how best to develop my skills and incorporate my knowledge of social media and marketing to finally pursue my dream of becoming a librarian and continuing to provide for underserved populations, especially BIPOC LGBTQIA+ communities. I eagerly await taking the next steps of my library journey, where I can be a positive impact in the lives of others.

I always thought I was a cat person, and spent so much of my childhood coming up with presentations and graphs on how cat ownership would make me a better person. My parents, for better or worse, were never convinced. When I was 13, though, they acquiesced in part, and brought home a puppy. From that moment on, my life was changed, and I fell head over heels in love with dogs. Being a dog owner as a teenager taught me patience, responsibility, and the importance of taking time out of a busy day to just enjoy life and have fun. As an adult, I rescued a Border Collie puppy, Koshou, who in turn rescued me. He followed me across the country, through relationships and career changes. One day, after five years together, I suffered an unfortunate dog park accident while trying to break up a dog fight. I was between homes and looking for someone to watch him until I could find a place to live. We stopped by a dog park and were having a great time, when another dog attacked him. I broke up the fight in the worst way (I know now), by trying to pull them apart. In the moment of chaos, the strange dog bit my finger off. I was rushed to the hospital, and my dog was taken to an animal shelter since I had no local friends or family to take him in while I was in emergency care. Thankfully, they were able to reattach the finger, but I had to make the hard choice to surrender him to the local animal welfare league so I could recover in a communal home. It was one of the hardest choices I have ever had to make, especially after we had gone through so much together. This tragedy didn’t sway my love for dogs, though, and after building a stable life for myself over the course of the next few years, I was able to become a dog owner once more. My current dog, Shoresy, is one of the brightest parts of my day. Stress and heartache melt away when he is with me. There have been so many days that I feel lost and alone, that I wonder how to continue in a world full of financial and political instability. Shoresy comes over to me, though, and leans against me, and everything suddenly seems a little bit more manageable. My partner and I love to spend our time training him to be a great little pupper, and I hope that we can take his innate caring and cuddly attitude and help others through therapy and support. Surrendering Koshou was one of the darkest moments in my life. It really made me take a look at what I needed to do to never be in a position where I was so vulnerable and helpless. Since then, I've continued to further my career and now seek to start graduate school. I don't know if I would be where I am today if not for losing him. But with Shoresy now at my side, I know I can accomplish anything.