Danny Rodriguez: Speaking Up, Speaking Out

Amundsen High School senior hopes to turn rebelliousness into public service, advocacy for women, minorities.

Northwestern Academy participant Danny Rodriguez, left, talks with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel '85 MA at the grand opening of the Northwestern Academy headquarters on the University's Chicago campus. Photo by Jim Prisching.

Danny Rodriguez, a straight-A student at Amundsen High School, takes a bit of pride in being “the bad kid.”  

He marched with Black Lives Matter in response to the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore and participated in the Women’s March in January. He hopes to turn that rebelliousness into public service.

“There needs to be someone out there fighting for minorities and women,” says Rodriguez, who spent three weeks in July at the Junior State of America’s Summer Program at Georgetown University. “The academy has made me more outspoken as an activist and as a student too.

“As a Latino, I see issues affecting minorities firsthand. The academy, as well as my high school, made me realize that I have opportunities that other students in the same communities as me do not have. It made me realize that I can use these opportunities in an effective way to be an advocate.”

Rodriguez, the son of Mexican immigrants, says going to college is not the norm in his family. His older brothers, ages 32 and 27, both entered the workforce immediately after high school. His family works in the restaurant business — his brothers run Whisk in West Town, and his father is a chef in Andersonville.

“When I was 11, I went to go see my dad at work,” Rodriguez recalls, “and I remember thinking how crazy and busy it was. I felt overwhelmed. My brother said something like, ‘You don’t want to do this when you grow up.’ That’s when it clicked for me. I knew I wanted to go to college.

“It was expected, because I have had opportunities my siblings didn’t have, that I would go to college,” Rodriguez adds. “My parents have made sure that I have every opportunity — scholarships, enrichment programs, college visits. They want to make sure I get out of the stereotypical Latino background — a hard worker who doesn’t go to college and lives at home. They really worked to ensure I would get out of that.”