Hello, My name is Kimberly Ramirez. I was born and raised in Colorado, and I recently moved to California. I don’t come from wealth or luxury far from it. I’m the middle child in a family of seven, and I’m the first in my family who is continuing school after high school. My mom came to this country when she was 19, and she had three kids after that. Unfortunately, my dad was never in the picture he left my mom after I was born, which led her to send me and my older siblings to live with my grandma.
For six years, my mom didn’t see us. She worked three jobs just to support us and herself. After a while, she remarried, my stepdad and my mom had three more kids my younger siblings. Life with him was hard. He was abusive emotionally, mentally, financially, and at times physically. There were days we didn’t know if there would be food on the table or a roof over our heads. Thankfully, my mom found the strength to leave him, and she is now free.
During those years, my older brother was in Mexico, and my older sister joined the military. That left me with the responsibility of taking care of my younger siblings while going to school and working alongside my mom cleaning offices and houses. Those experiences shaped me. They taught me responsibility, resilience, and the value of hard work.
The trade I want to study is welding. My mom used to work at a cement factory called CEMEX, where her coworkers became like family to us. One of them became especially important to me a positive male role model, someone who guided me when I didn’t have many people to rely on. Unfortunately, he passed away in an accident at the plant. He was a welder, and he would always take the time to talk to me about life, goals, and the future. One of the last conversations I had with him was about welding. He told me he believed in me, that I would become a good welder maybe not as good as him, but close enough. I miss him dearly every day, and it’s because of him that I decided to pursue welding not just for myself, but for him too.
I have prayed for a chance at a better life, for stability, and for a future I can be proud of. I know welding is my path to that. I am the daughter of an immigrant, and all of my mother’s sacrifices, tears, good days, and bad days will not be in vain. Her strength, my family’s struggles, and the people who have believed in me fuel my determination to succeed. I want to work hard, make a life I can be proud of, and honor everyone who helped shape me along the way.
I am currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Diagnostic Medical Sonography while raising six children. My family is the center of my life, and they are the biggest motivation behind my education and career goals. Becoming a mother at a young age taught me responsibility, and the importance of creating stability for my children. Every step I take toward my education is a step toward building a better future for them.
As a mother, I want my children to see that challenges do not define us, our determination does. Returning to school while raising a large family has required discipline, sacrifice, and long nights of studying, but it has also shown my children the value of education and persistence.
I chose to pursue diagnostic medical sonography because it allows me to combine my passion for healthcare with my desire to help others during important and sometimes difficult moments in their lives. Ultrasound plays a critical role in diagnosing medical conditions and I am inspired by the opportunity to provide patients with compassionate care while contributing to accurate diagnoses. Being able to support patients while using advanced technology to improve health outcomes is incredibly meaningful to me.
My goal is not only to build a stable career for my family but also to serve my community as a skilled and compassionate sonographer. I want to demonstrate to my children that no matter how demanding life may be, education and determination can open doors. By pursuing this career, I hope to provide financial stability for my family while making a positive impact in the healthcare field.
Receiving this opportunity would help ease the financial burden of pursuing my degree and allow me to stay focused on completing my education successfully. More importantly, it would support a mother who is determined to change the trajectory of her family’s future through hard work, education, and dedication.
My parents are from Guatemala, and they came to this country in the early 1980's. My mom came from a small village in a town called Nueva Santa Rosa, it's about 3 hours away from the capital. My dad is from a town in Guatemala city. My mom had other family members who had come a few months earlier so adapting wasn't much of a challenge short of the language barrier since they spoke predominantly Spanish. Besides all that though they my name is Cedric, and I'm from Los Angeles born and raised mostly grew up in the Koreatown area. I have two sisters Denisse and our youngest sister Sofi. Denisse is a dietician for the school district in the inland empire, and Sofi is a student at Amherst College majoring in Biology.
Now let's get back to me, my name is Cedric Trillo. I've worked in my different things, I have a background in general construction and painting because I come from a family who's been doing that for many many years. I always sought to get away from it because whatever I did to provide for myself or my family I was eager to earn and not have it handed off. And they taught me at the age of ten, and even worked during any days off from school. So I worked at Universal, Subway, Staples Center now known as Crypto.com arena, Westlake Financial, Giorgio Armani, did Uber and Lyft pre covid. During covid I did Uber eats, Postmates, and Doordash. Currently I work at adidas as a visual merchandiser, sales associate, and logistics and operations team. Recently I decided to pursue a career in plumbing because I've always enjoyed manual labor and constantly being on my feet and working with my hands. Plus its one of the few trades that's needed in any economic climate, it's always been important for me to not allow myself or my family starve. Plus I have friends who are in property management and are always looking for plumbers so I'd have a $0 Cost of Customer Acquisition if I ever turn it into a business, which one day I plan to do. It's also a trade I want to teach my children and my lifelong friends' children.
