Hometown: Denver, Colorado
High School: South High School
Major(s)/Minor: Political Science, Sociology, Spanish Minor
Lily Wilshire is a passionate student who graduated from Denver South High School as an active student-government leader, an AP Scholar with Distinction, the Vice President of the National Honor Society, and a self-diagnosed coffee addict. In 2018 she created a clothing drive to provide under-resourced students at South with winter-appropriate clothing. The drive is now a permanent program for students in need of clothing. Lily was an activist about many issues facing her community, and wrote an article for PBS speaking out against gun violence in the American education system her junior year. Outside of school, Lily worked as an intern for Senator Jeff Bridges in the Colorado State Legislature. She volunteered as a canvasser regularly before being offered the position at the Capitol. She hopes to continue exploring her zeal for politics as a political science major. Lily’s greatest passion and calling is service and social justice work. She has worked semi-annually for about six years at Rancho De Sus Ninos, an orphanage and school in Tijuana, Mexico. More recently, she has spent her summers working at Rancho as an intern. Her relationship with her friends in Tijuana has inspired her to pursue fluency in Spanish, and she graduated High School early to study Spanish at a language school abroad. She hopes to continue this as a Spanish minor. Lily also volunteered at Hope In Our City, an after school program for refugee and low income children in the Denver area. Lily is determined to end up in a service or social justice related career and looks forward to becoming better equipped to make positive change through her time at Santa Clara. She feels incredibly blessed to be a recipient of the Johnson Scholarship and is thrilled to be part of such a great community!