Ninotska Love is an entering freshman at Wellesley. The 28-year-old native of Ecuador is a transgender woman who would not have been allowed to attend that school last year. Love fled to the U.S. in 2009 after being kidnapped and threatened because of her gender identity.

Her first job in the U.S. was cleaning dorms at a college in North Carolina. She later moved to New York City and started classes at LaGuardia Community College, where she earned academic honors and gained support from the Kaplan Educational Foundation, which helps low-income and minority students transfer to four-year universities.

For me to be accepted to one of the best colleges for women in the nation, it is a big validation of the person that I have become. At first I couldn’t believe it. I’m so thankful to be here.

I knew that it would be a challenge; I knew that it would be difficult, but at the same time I knew that I can make a difference — and I knew that I can show to other people that we transgender women are humans, too.

--Love

As the leading liberal arts college for women, Wellesley’s mission is to educate women who will make a difference in the world — and those women represent diversity in every dimension.

--Sofiya Canalquinto, Wellesley spokeswoman

Ninotska shares her story at Huffington Post

I want to be a mentor to Latin@, immigrant, and LGBTQI communities, now that I am here. This is my purpose.