Braden River High student follows dreams through Disney Dreamers Academy

Growing up, Cynthia Medina always remembered how her grandmother Antonia Juarez Balboa wanted to visit the U.S.

She said her grandmother, who lived in Mexico, fantasized about America and thought it was the “most beautiful place.”

Juarez Balboa had all her paperwork ready and was excited for her first visit to the U.S when she was diagnosed with lung cancer two months before her trip in 2015. 

Before she could make her dream a reality, Juarez Balboa died of cancer.

“She never got to actually achieve her dream and visit America,” said Medina, who is a rising senior at Braden River High School. “It was heartbreaking.”

Medina said her grandmother wasn’t able to access the resources and medical care she needed. 

With her grandmother in mind, Medina wants to enter the biomedical field and work as a doctor for an organization such as the United Nations, so she can help people around the world like her grandmother. 

Medina said she’s closer to achieving her goal after attending the Disney Dreamers Academy March 23-26. 

Photo by Liz Ramos

Medina was one of 100 students selected to be a part of the Disney Dreamers Academy, which provides mentors, career workshops, skills opportunities and a behind-the-scenes look at Walt Disney World. 

Thousands of high school students between the ages of 13 and 19 applied to be a part of the academy. 

Medina was at Disney World learning skills such as interviewing and networking. She heard from alumni of Ivy League universities, people who have overcome adversity, and professionals of various industries. She walked in a parade at Magic Kingdom and saw had a behind-the-scenes look at the theme park. 

“We were able to see how everything works and why Disney is Disney,” she said. 

While at Dreamers Academy, Medina focused on veterinary sciences as it was the closet topic to the biomedical field. 

Medina said the seminars were fun because she was grouped with other students interested in the sciences, giving her a chance to talk with people who share the same goal as her.

Medina was grateful for the experiences she had at the academy, especially since she didn't expect to have that opportunity as a minority living in a low-income neighborhood in Bradenton.

Medina started learning how to speak English when she was a 6-year-old student at Robert E. Willis Elementary School. At home, she and her parents, Silvia Juarez and Carnelio Medina, who are from Mexico, always spoke Spanish. 

She recalled being in the cafeteria one day when an incident happened and she was sent to the office. Although she couldn’t remember what she did wrong, she remembered being asked if she did it on purpose. Because she didn’t speak or understand English well, she said yes and was given a referral. 

From that moment, Medina said she’s been working hard to learn English, do well in school and earn opportunities such as the Disney Dreamers Academy. 

As a soon-to-be first-generation high school graduate in her family, Medina said education has become pivotal to her upbringing. Her parents immigrated from Mexico to the U.S. in 2000 in hopes of providing their daughter a better life and access to a better education. 

“The reason why I’m here is because of what happened in their lives, and the struggles they went through, and (the fact) they migrated here,” Medina said of her parents. “I can’t ignore that part of me. … I want to get a job that represents who I am and brings all the elements of my life into the picture. I want to make that a reality.”

Medina said she was one of few Hispanic girls at Dreamers Academy, giving her the opportunity to share her perspective and diversify the representation of the dreamers. 

“I feel like representation matters so much because I don’t see a lot of people from my community achieving these things,” she said. “I’m just grateful for these opportunities.”

Since returning from Dreamers Academy, Medina has been inspired to speak up and to get involved in activism, helping to lead a protest about the attempt to ban books in libraries, as well as also organizing a rally for New College of Florida. 

“For me, I’ve struggled with speaking about how I feel sometimes, especially in a public setting,” Medina said. “Sometimes I’m scared of what other people think, but Disney Dreamers has helped me a lot with speaking up. (The speakers) emphasized the fact you shouldn’t be afraid, you shouldn’t sit down and let life pass you by. You should do something about what you want to achieve, who you are.”

Medina stood in front of a crowd May 3 in Sarasota introducing speakers during a rally against banning books. She helped distribute books to people of all ages. She said before Disney Dreamers, she never would have had the confidence to be involved in such a rally.