With Cindy Salazar, Roger Williams University “hit a triple,” says a smiling RWU Law Dean David Logan, referring to the fact that Salazar earned both her undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University before commencing work on a law degree this past fall.

“I really liked the flavor of the campus from the start,” Salazar explains. “You’re not just a student – you’re someone’s daughter, someone with a home and a job, someone facing life’s struggles and challenges. Every professor, every administrator, every secretary I’ve met here honestly seems to want me to succeed, to enhance my experience, to remove obstacles and help me get where I want to go.”

For Salazar, that means making a difference as a lawyer representing immigrants. It’s a mission she inherited from her parents, who moved to North Providence from Ecuador in the late 1960s and have been activists in Rhode Island’s Latino community since. With both undergraduate and master’s degrees in criminal justice, Salazar – who is also fluent in Spanish – believes a law degree will help her maximize her impact protecting the rights of the newest Americans.

Passionately opposed to what she calls the “heavy-handed, get-tough-on-immigration” initiatives that have filled local and national headlines in recent years, Salazar sees them as an indication that some leaders have lost perspective on the U.S.’s central strength.

“This country is a melting pot,” she says. “We all started in the same place – as newcomers in a new land. So I get upset when we forget or refuse to recognize that fact. To discriminate against the newest wave of immigrants is like discriminating against our own ancestors.”