Rosa De La Paz was eleven years old when she first walked into Union League Boys & Girls Club’s Club One, back when it was still the Boys Club. She wasn’t supposed to be there. Her job was simple. Go in, get her brothers, and leave.
But she stayed a little longer each time.
She watched what was happening inside. The games. The structure. The sense of belonging. She wanted to be part of it, even though there was no path for her yet.
“I want to be a member,” she told Frank, the Club director.
He told her to be patient.
She wasn’t.
Rosa started organizing. She asked her friends to join her. They made signs. They stood outside the Club calling for something they didn’t yet have words for. Some days, it was just her, standing there alone, certain that this mattered.
“I didn’t know what I was doing,” she said. “I just knew I wanted in.”
She kept showing up. And eventually, the answer changed.
Rosa became the first girl to join.
That decision did not just affect one child. It changed who the Club could serve and who could see themselves inside it.
Her early years were not easy. She describes herself as someone who did not fit neatly anywhere. Not with the girls. Not with the boys. She faced resistance the moment she made herself visible. She was told she didn’t belong. She was pushed out, both directly and indirectly.
She stayed anyway.
What she found inside the Club was not just access. It was consistency. Expectations. People who paid attention. Frank, in particular, became a steady presence in her life. He corrected her when she needed it. He encouraged her when she did not yet understand her own potential.
“I didn’t realize my voice had power,” she said. “He just kept telling me to keep going.”
Today, Rosa serves as a reservist in the United States Air Force, a role she has held since 1996. She also works as a governmental accountant with the Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Two demanding roles. Two systems built on precision, discipline, and accountability.
Those expectations were familiar to her long before those roles.
At the Club, she learned what it meant to show up on time, to follow through, to take responsibility. Her first job was at the Club, cleaning out an old locker room. When she earned her first paycheck, she bought herself a Barbie doll. Something she had never had before.
The Club also gave her direction. A sense that there was always another step to take.
She carried that into her career, and into how she leads others.
Rosa actively mentors young Airmen. She shares opportunities. She encourages them to step into spaces they may not feel ready for yet. In some cases, she removes barriers herself, covering costs or making introductions so they can move forward.
“I’m going to give you everything I can,” she said. “Even if it wasn’t given to me.”
When asked what matters most for young women today, her answer is clear.
Find a mentor.
“I believe the most valuable advice I can give to young ladies is to find someone who can see your potential and encourages you to keep pushing beyond what you can see. Believe them when they tell you what you can be, what you can become, and what you can create.”
For Rosa, that support existed within the Club. It shaped how she shows up now, not just as someone who benefited from those opportunities, but as someone who creates them for others.
Rosa once stood outside those doors, asking to be let in.
Because she did, girls who came after her walked through those same doors as members.