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Madelyn Dye

2,395

Bold Points

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Finalist

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Winner

Bio

My name is Matthew Dye. I graduated from an early college high school in 2022 with both my high school diploma and my Associate of Arts. During my time in high school, I maintained high academic achievement while juggling a part-time job, community service, and caring full-time for my two younger siblings during lockdown. I was accepted into Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and I'm going into my sophomore year. I am involved in multiple extracurricular activities on campus. I help run programming for Loving House, the LGBTQ+ living-learning community on campus (where I reside), and I'm the Recruitment Chair for Cornell Ethics Bowl. I joined policy debate last spring, and I'm looking forward to participating in tournaments this coming fall. My dream is to become a lawyer and argue cases in front of the Supreme Court. I'm particularly interested in labor law and the rights of employees. I hope to get involved in advocacy for workers' rights, queer and trans rights, and socioeconomic justice.

Education

Cornell University

Bachelor's degree program
2022 - 2026
  • Minors:
    • History
    • Law
    • Philosophy

Cape Fear Community College

Associate's degree program
2018 - 2022

Pender Early College High

High School
2018 - 2022

Miscellaneous

  • Desired degree level:

    Doctoral degree program (PhD, MD, JD, etc.)

  • Graduate schools of interest:

  • Transfer schools of interest:

  • Majors of interest:

    • Law
    • Social Sciences, Other
  • Not planning to go to medical school
  • Career

    • Dream career field:

      Law Practice

    • Dream career goals:

      Legal expert and activist, argue cases before the Supreme Court and aid in efforts to achieve social justice in the South

    • Research Assistant

      ILR Worker Institute
      2023 – 2023
    • Personal Shopper

      Food Lion
      2023 – 2023
    • Intern

      Rhonda Davis Consulting
      2023 – 2023
    • Fuel Attendant

      Lowe's Foods
      2021 – Present3 years
    • Cashier

      Lowe's Foods
      2020 – 20211 year
    • Guest Service Leader

      Lowe's Foods
      2021 – 2021

    Sports

    Softball

    Intramural
    2010 – 20177 years

    Research

    • Social Sciences, General

      ILR Worker Institute — Research assistant researching reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights with a focus on transgender rights, labor, and the intersections of these issues.
      2023 – 2023

    Arts

    • Pender Early College Yearbook/Journalism Class

      Design
      Daily Student News, Friday Features, 2019-2020 Yearbook, Journalism Class Website
      2019 – 2020
    • Pender Early College Drama Club

      Theatre
      Afternoon at the Improv
      2018 – 2020

    Public services

    • Volunteering

      Angel Tree — Shopper, fundraiser organizer
      2019 – 2019
    • Volunteering

      Safe Haven Thrift Shop — Sorted donations, helped in general duties around store
      2021 – Present
    • Public Service (Politics)

      Bernie Sanders 2020 Campaign — Text banker and phone banker
      2020 – 2020

    Future Interests

    Advocacy

    Politics

    Volunteering

    Philanthropy

    Catrina Celestine Aquilino Memorial Scholarship
    My name is Matthew, but it used to be Madelyn. I'm a transmasculine nonbinary person, and I'm bisexual. I'm currently in an open relationship with my girlfriend, who is a transwoman. The LGBTQ+ community is my family. I live in Loving House, the LGBTQ+ living-learning community at Cornell University, where I'm majoring in Industrial and Labor Relations. If it weren't for these people, I would never have met my girlfriend, made friends on campus, or had as much of a fulfilling experience during my first year of college. My family is not accepting, so my queer friends, my RA, and the queer faculty on campus are my found family. They are my solace and my hope in the face of hundreds of anti-trans bills in legislatures across the country and in my home state. I've been discriminated against in the workplace for being disabled and for being trans. I know what it's like to work in a hostile work environment, created by coworkers and managers who insist on misgendering me and trying to convince me to go by my deadname. They act like it was a choice to transition, and I could just as soon go back. It wasn't a choice, it was survival. I love my life, and I live boldly and proudly. I make space for others and blaze a path so that the queer and trans kids who come after me have space to breathe. I catch transphobia from my colleagues, but I'm a safe haven for the trans and queer teenagers at my workplace who are closeted at work but came out to me privately. This experience has driven me to succeed in school so that I can continue doing this work on a policy level. I'm from the South, and I know that there is massive untapped potential for progressive reform here. Political organizing and get-out-the-vote campaigns turned Georgia blue in the 2020 election, and we can do that in other states as well. We have to mobilize and galvanize the South. So many people here are suffering because of racial, economic, and social injustice, and they need a movement that will tell them that they haven't been forgotten, that their needs are seen and heard, and that they have the strength to fight against Republican gerrymandered supermajorities that actively harm them. I want to work with unions, grassroots organizations, and other groups to better the South and make it a more welcoming, inclusive, and uplifted region. I want to go to law school and work to empower workers and improve workers' rights. That includes protections against workplace discrimination. I want to represent people who've been discriminated against so that I can get justice for them and set legal precedent that protects others, carving a path forward. I am even more determined since the Supreme Court decision on the Christian web designer came down. My number one goal is to make it easier for the queer and trans youth that come after me: to make sure they find community and acceptance, both interpersonally and legally. It's going to take a lifetime of hard work, but with the support of my community, I'm going to do it.
    PRIDE in Education Award
    My name is Matthew, but it used to be Madelyn. I'm a transmasculine nonbinary person, and I'm bisexual. I'm currently in an open relationship with my girlfriend, who is a transwoman. The LGBTQ+ community is my family. I live in Loving House, the LGBTQ+ living-learning community at Cornell University. If it weren't for these people, I would never have met my girlfriend, made friends on campus, or had as much of a fulfilling experience during my first year of college. My family is not accepting, so my queer friends, my RA, and the queer faculty on campus are my found family. They are my solace and my hope in the face of hundreds of anti-trans bills in legislatures across the country and in my home state. The queer community reminds me that no matter what happens, we will always be here. The AIDS epidemic killed so many, but we rose again from the ashes to win marriage equality and make great strides in queer acceptance. No matter what happens with these anti-trans laws, they will never be able to erase us all. I'm majoring in Industrial and Labor Relations. I want to go to law school and work to empower workers and improve workers' rights. That includes protections against workplace discrimination. I've been discriminated against in the workplace for being disabled and for being trans. I know what it's like to work in a hostile work environment, created by coworkers and managers who insist on misgendering me and trying to convince me to go by my deadname. They act like it was a choice to transition, and I could just as soon go back. It wasn't a choice, it was survival. I love my life, and I live boldly and proudly. I make space for others and blaze a path so that the queer and trans kids who come after me have space to breathe. I catch transphobia from my colleagues, but I'm a safe haven for the trans and queer teenagers at my workplace who are closeted at work but came out to me privately. This experience has driven me to succeed in school so that I can continue doing this work on a policy level. I want to represent people who've been discriminated against so that I can get justice for them and set legal precedent that protects others, carving a path forward. I am even more determined since the Supreme Court decision on the Christian web designer came down. My number one goal is to make it easier for the queer and trans youth that come after me: to make sure they find community and acceptance, both interpersonally and legally. It's going to take a lifetime of hard work, but with the support of my community, I'm going to do it.
    I Can Do Anything Scholarship
    I will be an attorney whose tireless advocacy for human rights inspires changes in the laws, policies, and culture of the United States, improving the lives of millions of Americans, especially those in my home state of North Carolina and the South.
    "What Moves You" Scholarship
    "After all, if you do not resist the apparently inevitable, you will never know how inevitable the inevitable was." - Terry Eagleton It's a commonly used phrase, and any child asking questions about the world around them is bound to have heard it at one point or another. I've heard many variations, such as "that's just how the world works" and "that's life." However, I refuse to believe that's true. Society is structured in the way that it is, not because of immutable characteristics of natural law, but because humans decided it should run that way. From a series of revolutions, both intellectual and physical, today's society emerged. It will continue to grow and evolve as activists, professionals, politicians, and ordinary citizens push for change. To the feudal peasants of medieval Europe, liberal democracy would have seemed impossible. A complete restructuring of society is never out of the realm of possibility. One can never know what is possible unless one strives to achieve it. In the spirit of Terry Eagleton's words, I will spend my life trying to make changes to the world around me, even if other people try to tell me that it isn't possible. If I were to allow others to convince me not to try, that's when it would truly become impossible.