UCF junior lobbying for women in Tallahassee

Kelly Quintero, a junior political science major and women's studies minor, has always believed in women's equality. In fact, today she considers herself to be a first-wave feminist, or a generation Y and X feminist, who strives to give women their voice back.

With UCF's diverse selection of clubs and organizations, Quintero easily found a place on campus where she could voice her opinions: the National Organization for Women at UCF, of which she is currently president.

With much aspiration and after three years of being heavily involved with NOW at UCF, Quintero was asked personally by Donna Slutiak, president of the state of Florida's NOW chapter, to run for the newly opened legislative director position, as she was extremely impressed with Quintero just by the few times they spoke in person.

"Kelly has different qualities that I like to see in upcoming leaders, and many of us are older, and I love having a younger feminist on board because we need to know how our actions and reactions are affecting our leaders of tomorrow," Slutiak said.

Quintero was accepted into the Tallahassee-based position in June, but the job will not really start to pick up until the legislature is in session, which is in January.

"I look at this position as a chance to get involved and put to work the things I have learned in my classes to better inform women about what bills are affecting them in the Florida legislature," Quintero said.

With this new position, Quintero will be traveling to Tallahassee a few times a semester to speak with Florida NOW lobbyists, but she insists that it will not interfere with her school work.

"I will give it my all, but only after I give being a student my all," she said.

She will also be lobbying herself, talking to Florida representatives about bills that affect women and giving women in Florida the information they need to make an informed decision about such things as women's health care.

"As a woman, it is so important to know how the government is treating you and how your health is basically on the chopping block because there are not many female representatives and so they don't know what women's health really entails," Quintero said.

In addition to lobbying, Quintero is fulfilling her dream as an active feminist by participating in as many events as possible to spread the message of equal opportunities for women. Such events include women's marches, organizing the Take Back the Night event which is a march to end rape and rape violence and organizational conferences in Florida that support feminism and bring awareness to issue regarding women in today's society.

"Feminism is my passion, and for me to be able to be a student and speak out about feminism means so much to me," Quintero said. " And you don't have to be anti-man to be pro-women. To be a feminist means to be a female activist and to fight for women's equality."

NOW at UCF members are all proud of Quintero for branching out of the UCF chapter to the state chapter to make a bigger difference.

"It is great that Kelly is on the executive board of Florida NOW because she is putting in a younger perspective into the mix and is able to tell the board what college students think about certain issues," said Nicole Elinoff, UCF NOW secretary, psychology major and women's studies minor.

As the new Florida NOW legislative director, Quintero plans on bringing as much as she can to the table and hopes to make an impact in Florida legislature.

"My goal is to influence as many representatives as I can, whether that means me talking to them or emailing NOW members to reach out to their representatives to ultimately and finally let women's voices be heard in the state of Florida," Quintero said.