JDT Ventures Scholarship Fund

As someone who came from a low income household, it’s difficult to say with a smile that life has been easy. I will say though that I am lucky to have a household. After all, not everyone has somewhere to call home. For the majority of my life, I lived with my mom, an immigrant as well as a single mother of 4. She faced a lot of challenges throughout her life. She crossed two borders to try to give me and my older brother a better chance at life. Yet, right before crossing the U.S. border, I was born. At a young age, I didn’t understand why my brothers and I had to share clothes. I didn’t understand why we had to use the same shirt for three days in a row. I didn’t question it as I thought it was a very normal thing to do. It was until one day in around 5th grade, a kid asked me if I was using the same shirt as yesterday. Without thinking much of it, I said it was. Little did I know, agreeing to that would cause people to view me differently. They thought I was nasty and that I smelled bad. I got insecure about what I was using. I remember complaining to my mother why we didn’t get new clothes. What I didn’t understand was that she was working 8 hours a day to barely afford giving us a place to live and food to eat. What made my situation worse was that my father never did anything that greatly contributed to our family. He never took my brothers and I to the doctor, never bought us things out of love, and never took the time out of his day to understand us. He doesn’t even pay child support. I still love him, as I don’t think hating someone is the way to go. Just like trying to stop fire with fire, hatred doesn’t resolve things. Though, it did hurt as a kid seeing him take better care of his wife’s kids; kids who weren’t even his. As much as this can hurt someone, I never let it get into me. Being from a low income household has shaped me to become grateful for whatever is given to me. Whether it be money, clothing, education, or even love, I adore it with all my heart. I know how it is to not have something. I’m in the U.S. as an undocumented child. It’s difficult for me to find a job, learn how to drive, or to even have dreams of traveling. But I will continue fighting for a better chance at life, as that’s something my mom would do. My goals for the future include helping those in similar circumstances as I am. But first, I have to get out of my tough situation. I’ll go to college to pursue a good career. One that will hopefully give me a lot of power to aid those who need it. From there, I will repay my mother for everything she went through. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be here. I hope to someday create a resource center where immigrants like to have a place to feel welcomed. A place where they don’t have to worry about being defined solely based on their status. My goal is to become someone people can look up to and know they’re not alone.

Growing up was a rollercoaster, me and all my family lived in Mexico, life over there is hard because there were days my parents couldn’t afford food for my family of 4 ,both of them worked two jobs to be able to give me and my sister a life they always dream of for themselves but had to give up for their daughters. I remember I spend more time with babysitters and going for days without my parents, my dad worked mechanic’s and transportation at once and my mom was a house maid and a school custodian. It got to the point that two jobs wasn’t enough to bring some money to the house in Mexico. Life started to get tricky for them and they started to see that staying in our home country was not we all went going to progress that life they want for my sister and I. Moving to the United States was a big change both of my parents struggle for a few months to find jobs and perfect schools for me to go. For 2 months 4 of us were living in a room with only access to a bathroom and a kitchen, 2 other families had to share the kitchen and bathroom too. I was 9 years old when this situation was happening. Years passed I turned 15 and by that time my family was able to rent a small house for our selves it is a 2 room and a bathroom but sharing it with your own family safer, my parents were still having troubles to bring them enough money to cover the bills. At such a young age I decided to find a Sumer part time job to help out my family ever since them I help them out by providing them extra money. Living with counted materials and food through out my life helped me to help out other that went through a similar situation like myself. My determination to be successful has been my biggest taken away from this experience. I have learned to appreciate the opportunities given to me and I will continue to do so by making something of them. I have also learned to be vocal about what concerns me or what I'm passionate about. As an undocumented student and the life I’ve been through has made me an incredible person that all I want it to help my community that had been with situation like my and with young teenagers that had to also work at a early agent to provide extra help to their families I plan to attend college to get a bachelor's degree in business administration, with a minor in marketing. Afterwards I'm planning on using my marketing and business degree to work with a company that will allow me to utilize my skills and knowledge. After completing this first life goal, I will follow another dream of mine, becoming a certified pilot. I look forward to being able to fly those massive air crafts in the sky. Allowing me to experience the same freedom I felt on my first flight to Utah.

The direct and indirect consequences of living in a low-income single parent household has been the biggest challenge I have faced. For most of my life, my mother had been the sole provider for my family. She had taken on the position my father had refused, and had proven to handle the responsibility. However, his absence proved detrimental to living a normal life. In fact, due to the lack of a second source of Income, I spent more nights with my neighbors than with my own mother. Most of the exchanges I had with my mother took place at the break of dawn, or at late hours of the night. I had to wake up early to catch glimpses of my mother and when I did, I could only muster a few words before I had to go to the neighbors. The short period of time I had with my mother made every moment feel precious. This feeling didn’t resonate with my brother. Contrary to my feelings of longing, my brother had feelings of resentment. He felt my mother had abandoned him and so, he turned his irritation towards my mother. At that age, I blamed my father. I felt like he was responsible for everything going wrong in our family. Indirectly creating a toxic environment where I couldn’t speak to my brother because he reminded me of him. However, as I got older I realized that blaming him didn’t make me feel better. Instead, I needed to direct my energy on re-building my relationship with my brother, and improving my education. Once I began to channel my energy into school, my dad no longer affected me. In fact, he indirectly motivates me to do well in school, not for him but in spite of him. In contrast, my mother’s will has pushed her to overcome the obstacles of being a single mother, and an immigrant woman. Like my mother, I am overcoming my challenge with my father by choosing to attend college. By investing my time and effort, I will be able to give her the life that she deserves. I will be able to financially support my mother, and be able to ensure that she stays in good health. The environment that I grew up in was out of my control, but now my future falls on my hands. Through college I will divert away from my fathers path, and prove how successful a single parent child can be. My determination will not stop at my success, I will not cease until I ensure that others in single parent households reach success. I will become a lawyer who is competent in their community by utilizing my experience to create a non-profit that offers monetary assistance to single parents. The lack of assistance from the government is an issue prevalent in single parents who are immigrants. Single mothers and fathers can’t enforce child support across countries, which means they are unable to obtain a second source of income. This non-profit will seek to help single parent immigrants financially, so that they are able to see their children throughout their childhood. I plan to fund the non-profit through fundraising events, grants, and through connections that I will build by networking in college. Although my plans are ambitious, I still have my whole life ahead of me to accomplish my goals. I have overcome many challenges living in a single parent household, and will continue to do the same in college!