Emmanuela Feliciano Carrascal was once told her name was Emma. She was eight years old, had left a violent region with her family for Florida, and had to learn a new world real fast.
“What is your name?” A teacher asked her, and the little girl told her, proudly: Emmanuela Feliciano Carrascal. “I’m not going to do that,” the teacher replied. “I’m going to call you Emma.”
That little girl is no longer a little girl, and Emmanuela Feliciano Carrascal is this year’s recipient of the Edith Lesley Wolfard Award.
It wasn’t until last year at Lesley, when Emmanuela was in a class exploring cultural identity and roots, that another student asked about a bracelet she wore with another name on it Manu. Her family nickname. She is going by that name now (although she will still answer to Emma). “It was nice for me to feel like I could have been doing this for so long.” She’s not angry at that teacher, although she wishes she had put in more effort.
Emmanuela exudes a tranquil way of being, and brings that with her The Children’s Room, where children learn to deal with grief. She, too, has had to do that; her father lost his parents and brother due to political violence in Colombia; she says she wanted to take her own grief at not knowing her own grandparents and family and use it to help others. “Doing bereavement work is one of the most human experiences that there is.” She says helping someone through their own pain is an “honor.”
