Spring 2023 Award Winner: One Tough Student Scholarship

Alexandro Rivera, Spring 2023 Award Winner

James Kennedy Law is honored to name Alexandro Rivera as a winner of the One Tough Student Scholarship. Alexandro is pursuing his bachelor’s degree at the University of Texas at El Paso. In his essay, you learn of the differences he hopes society will make in the fight against drunk driving and how he prioritizes his friends' safety.

Read Alexandro's Essay:

In order to reduce drunk driving accidents at a societal level, the severity of the victims needs to be displayed in a blunt and truthful manner to the public. Everyone is aware that driving under any influence is dangerous, however, the type of people to drink and drive seem to have a case of main character syndrome, in which they believe they will be fine and that they will be the statistic that survives. Everyone goes through this in a small manner, doing something you know is slightly bad or slightly dangerous because you have been able to do it before just fine, but in real life, it only takes one time. It doesn’t matter if you have been able to drive decently under small influence, it only takes one time, and then it will be too late. This needs to be made clear to society that once an accident occurs, it is too late, it no longer matters how many times the act was done without any accidents now that one had occurred. Campaigns, classes, seminars, public speakers, advertisements, any avenue to spread information to inform the public of the results of drunk driving need to be more mainstream, researched, and focused. Showing people survivors who are permanently injured in some way will show people how severe and important these accidents can be and having the loved ones of those who didn’t survive due to one of these accidents will appeal to the viewers empathetic feelings and make it easier to understand the consequences of drunk driving. Speaking to people who have gone through something horrible is important in order for one to gain a small understanding of what that could be like, and would make people want to be more careful. Everyone has been through loss, through an accident of some sort, so appealing to their empathy with blunt yet informative drunk driving victim speakers should be the best avenue to reduce these accidents at a societal level. Attempting to reduce drinking by itself will not work, because the problem isn’t the drink, it is the person who believes they are okay enough to drive on their own. If that person was more informed on the possible consequences, not only would they be less likely to drive while drunk, but they would also be wary of the driving arrangements before beginning to drink at an event. Which brings me to the possible steps I could take in my community, and that is to make sure there is always a designated driver, and to make sure that everyone knows the severity of what can happen when people drive drunk. I personally do not drink at all, however I always make sure to volunteer to be the designated driver, or make sure that the point gets across that anyone who has been drinking should not be the ones to drive home. At the end of the day, people need to be more informed; society as whole increasing awareness of dunk driving would help reduce the number of accidents, and my community having each other’s back making sure that anyone under any influence doesn’t drive is what is needed to prevent drunk driving in its entirety.