Jordan Goodwin, the 2019 recipient of the Pedrozzi Promise Scholarship, has been thriving at her dream university, UC Berkeley. In addition to maintaining an exceptional grade point average, Jordan is actively involved in many exciting endeavors, both on and off-campus. She recently shared an update as she begins her senior year:
Academically, I have been doing quite excellent. As of right now my GPA stands at a 3.894, only one more A away from achieving a cumulative 3.9 GPA which is my goal for my undergraduate career. I am now in the process of wrapping up my degree, and I have only one legal studies course and two theater courses left to graduate. I am particularly excited about my Advanced Acting course which I am hoping to take during the fall semester. After taking theater classes throughout this year my passion for theater has only grown. This summer I will be traveling to LA for a month to hopefully gain some audition experience and get some background acting and student film experience. I have also decided to move to LA for a year after I graduate, where I am hoping to pursue both my legal and theater career. My goal is to be a paralegal for a law firm, hopefully within the civil rights or criminal law sector, during my gap year prior to law school while also pursuing TV and film work. After this gap year I plan on pursuing a dual degree program towards a J.D. and a Masters in Fine Arts in Acting. Pursuing an MFA is something I recently decided to do, so I look forward to doing more research about programs offered at different schools. As of right now I am most intrigued by the Yale M.F.A program, and attending Yale Law School while completing that program. I am also quite interested in USC’s program as well. Unfortunately my top law school choice, Stanford University, does not offer an M.F.A program so if I decided to attend there I would not be able to pursue a dual degree.
Outside of school I have maintained my involvement with the Black Recruitment and Retention Center on campus and will be serving as Internal Director again this year. This work has only grown more important in my life since my last update, and I continue to dedicate most of my free time to engage in the work of the center. I have learned so much about myself as a leader and as a professional, and I will forever be grateful for my experience with BRRC. Next year I will be leading a team of 12 coordinators and 20 interns, which I believe will be an exciting challenge for me. Our center is turning 40 years old this year, so I am also quite excited for planning the celebration for that. Outside of BRRC I have also continued my involvement with Cal Band and continued my role as Recruiting Coordinator this year, which I have enjoyed. I have also became more involved in this community as I have tried to attend more of our events and performances. This has proved quite worthwhile as I have grown in many of my friendships in this space. Finally this year I am also hoping to receive a spot in the Theater Department’s upcoming production of “In the Red and Brown Water.” This production is the first play I have auditioned for and I just recently received an invitation to the callback audition, which I am quite excited for!
As I stated previously this summer I will be traveling to LA for a month to gain some acting experience. I will also be interning this summer at the American Civil Liberties Union branch in Southern California, and will specifically be working on addressing inequities and issues in the LA County jails. I am quite excited to start this work, as I hope to work for the ACLU after I graduate law school. Outside of my travels and internship, I am hoping to spend the summer enjoying time with my family and catching up on some much-needed relaxation after the busy semester I have had!
I would like to again express my immense gratitude for choosing me to receive this scholarship. The impact of this scholarship on my undergraduate career cannot be understated. Consistently throughout my 4 years at UC Berkeley, I have been lucky enough to experience financial stability and have still not had to take a student loan out to complete my degree. This is all due to your donation and I greatly appreciate you believing in me and my goals.
Here at the Pedrozzi Foundation, we are so impressed by all that Jordan has already accomplished, and we cannot wait to hear about her future accomplishments! We know that she will do big things in her career, and we are so proud that she is part of our Scholar Community.
