Growing up in the Family Restaurant Business Scholarship

My family restaurant was my first job, home, and church in one. It was also where I learned how to drive, practiced customer service and gained public speaking skills. It was where I learned you can't just reach for your dreams, you have to run after them. One step at a time, every day. My family owned a Liberian restaurant in a mini plaza strip that was right across from a car wash and a roller rink. When my parents first bought the restaurant I was about 10 years old, and my three younger siblings were 8, 6, and 4 respectively. Just before then, we had been living out of our 6-seat SUV and my parents had been working for our daily post office, bagging newspapers and delivering them around 3:00 to 4:00 in the morning just to be able to pay for car insurance and the car note. We shared 2 comforters, one to sleep on and the other to lay underneath while my parents worked from 9:00 pm - 5:00 am every day. My father was also a pastor, so every Sunday we would visit a church and he would preach a sermon the best he could even when he didn't get more than 4-5 hours of sleep the night before. So when my parents saved enough to buy our storefront space, it was a blessing for all of us. Our storefront became where we would serve food in the day, sleep at night, and preach on Sunday mornings. As one would expect, owning and maintaining a restaurant is not easy. My parents had to learn how to market a business and build a steady customer base all from scratch while taking care of four young and rowdy children. Luckily, their work ethic and commitment rubbed off on me and I helped take care of my siblings while my parents worked. I also committed myself to learning as much as I could with the resources that were available to me. I would take high school courses over the summer while entering middle school and even used the building our restaurant was a part of to stay active. I would watch over my siblings and make dishes for customers whenever my parents went out and help them around the kitchen when they were helping others. I became self-efficient and learned to love to give to others even when it seemed like I had nothing. Because of this, I have acquired over 8 years of volunteer experience in giving food to my local community of those who were homeless and teaching students to help them pursue their passions. If I were to change the restaurant industry, I would incorporate strategic volunteer work into each business. Not only would it help the staff of the restaurant it would also incorporate servitude into the everyday lives of communities. Cultural barriers would be crossed respectfully and new cultures would arise while opening the doors to stronger communication, and trust throughout communities. Through my family business, I got my first taste of customer service and hard work, during and outside of school. It taught me how to stay focused even when things get hard and to never give up. No matter what trials and tribulations come my way, I can make it. With this scholarship, I aim to keep my commitment to these principles that my parents and this experience have given me and help other students find these principles as well.

Working in my mother's Mexican snack shop as a teenager was a definitive experience for me, shaping who I am today and steering my future ambitions. This early introduction to the rigors and rewards of the restaurant business served as my initial foray into the world of work, provided critical skills, and offered profound insights into my cultural heritage and identity. Growing up in a modest Hispanic family, our snack shop represented not just a source of income, but also an avenue for us to share our Mexican heritage within a predominantly white community. As one of only two Mexican children in my grade, the snack shop became a means of cultural expression, a tangible symbol of our traditions. Each customer's satisfied smile after tasting our homemade delicacies was a silent validation of our efforts and our heritage. My early involvement in running the family restaurant business introduced me to the importance of time management and flexibility. Juggling schoolwork with preparing orders and maintaining customer service taught me a level of discipline that would serve me well in future years. Amidst the busy rush hours and complex orders, I learned to work effectively under stress, a skill that has been invaluable during my academic journey and my subsequent job in corporate restaurants. In retrospect, I realize that the snack shop was my first practical lesson in problem-solving, a precursor to my current academic pursuit in computer science. The ability to swiftly address customer concerns, handle logistics, and ensure a smooth workflow mirrored the systematic troubleshooting I now undertake when writing code. It taught me that every problem, whether in the kitchen or on a computer screen, can be broken down, analyzed, and solved efficiently. As for the future of the restaurant industry, I believe technology can play a transformative role. Drawing from my computer science studies, I envision a future where automation and data analytics can revolutionize restaurants. Automation could improve efficiency in kitchen operations, order management, and inventory control, reducing waste and enhancing productivity. On the other hand, data analytics could enable restaurants to understand customer preferences better, provide personalized recommendations, and make informed decisions on menu changes or promotional strategies. Moreover, the restaurant industry could greatly benefit from a renewed focus on cultural cuisines. As our snack shop demonstrated, there is a vast untapped potential for restaurants that offer authentic culinary experiences from around the world. By promoting such diversity, we can enhance cultural understanding and appreciation, enriching the gastronomical landscape. In conclusion, my early experience in the family restaurant business was foundational in molding my work ethic, problem-solving abilities, and cultural identity. It was a unique classroom that taught me valuable life lessons and inspired my current aspirations in computer science. With this scholarship, I hope to further my education and use my skills to bring innovative changes to the restaurant industry, honoring the legacy of my family's humble snack shop.