Aaron Arthur Lim is a sophomore at Wesleyan University under the Freeman Asian Scholarship pursuing a double major in Economics and Government. He graduated class valedictorian from the De La Salle Santiago Zobel School in Muntinlupa City, Philippines, where he concentrated in the humanities and social sciences. At De La Salle Zobel is where Aaron’s passion for community engagement grew. During his senior year, Aaron won the best culminating research project for his study on the treatment and living conditions of Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDLs) in the Philippines’s main insular prison.
Through his upbringing in the country, he saw the injustice Filipinos face in light of a negligent government. With Aaron’s family hailing from Siasi, Sulu, a place in the Philippines where armed conflict between the state and nonstate actors is rampant, he developed his passion for humanitarian relief and the upliftment of the lives of refugees who are caught in the crossfire. The social issue Aaron underscores during his undergraduate studies is insurgency in the Philippines, particularly in the region of Mindanao where it is most rampant.
Looking to the future, Aaron intends to pursue a law degree in the Philippines after college in order to be a champion of human rights and to defend those who are overlooked by the state. He hopes to eventually join public service in order to fulfill his lifelong dream of serving his country and leaving it a better place than he found it; ultimately, Aaron wishes to change the economic and political landscape of his country, the Philippines, into a country that advocates for the protection and wellbeing of its constituents.
