LOS ANGELES – She may have just graduated high school, but 18-year-old Gabriella Desch-Obi is still committed to public school reform as she takes her latest Zoom meeting as a leader for El Segundo for Black Lives.
"You know to force the kids to learn more about things outside of the bubble that is El Segundo, and also to realize that their actions and what they're doing has consequences and to recognize their own privilege," said Desch-Obi.
Growing up in Leimert Park, Desch-Obi attended middle and high school in predominantly white El Segundo because the school has good programs for college.
She said she had to work three times harder than her white peers, and micro-aggressions and stereotypes were common.
"I remember one day I finally showed up in like a t-shirt and sweatpants and someone was like, ‘Oh now you're trying to be from the hood? You're trying to act ghetto,’" said Desch-Obi.
The stereotypes didn't end there.
Desch-Obi has a mixed background, and said her friends would pick and choose when she could be considered Black, saying the way she talks is "whitewashed."
"The term 'whitewashed' is a degrading term because it's saying that people of minority communities can't be well-educated and sound professional and sophisticated," said Desch-Obi.
Desch-Obi has a love for art and music, but also excels in engineering having spent time in STEM at El Segundo High.
Even in that space, she's been made to feel like she didn't belong.
"When I'd be like, 'Oh I'm worried for college and what I want to do with everything like that,' they'd say, 'Don't worry you're going to get in because you're Black.' Not because I work hard," said Desch-Obi.
Despite the adversity, she's made great friends and found reasons to love her school and the town.
She joined the Black Student Union, and in May, became a leader for El Segundo for Black Lives, spearheading the public education reform committee working to make the school more welcoming for minority communities.
"With our core curriculums, English, math, science, history. Diversifying it, because, white history isn't our only history," said Desch-Obi.
She's attending Northwestern University in Chicago in the fall majoring in biomedical engineering.
She wants to own her own prosthetic company one day and make it as affordable and accessible as possible.
"Health is a basic human right and I want to make people's lives as easy as possible to blend in and do normal things in society," said Desch-Obi.
By educating others from her own personal experience, she hopes to leave the town she graduated from more open-minded than when she found it.