One contribution that I have made to my community is a food pantry that I have started working with my church. Every week we pass out food to people both who attend our church, and in the community surrounding the church. This food pantry is a benefit to people in the community around us because there are many homeless people living in the area surrounding our church, and having at least one guaranteed meal a week is impactful. One of my biggest long-term goals is to continue the church ministry and be able to have the benefits reach out and bless more people outside of our small community to others such as people that don’t necessarily have a church home that they can receive these benefits from. Another long-term goal is being able to provide people with more than just breakfast food and enough food to last them until the next week of services. When the program first started, we were able to do that. We had frozen meals, meats, cheeses, fresh fruit, and all types of other food for people to take home with them. There was no limit and all of it was free, however we had to stop due to problems with our collaboration with the food market providing us with these foods. I want to work on collaborating with another company to help us bring this back so that families in need can have guaranteed meals for the rest of their week, until they can get more.
One immediate goal that I want to achieve is helping to get more of the other youth to help us with the program because I want us to still be able to continue and have multiple people available so that if some people can’t come, we’ll always have other people ready to help. This is an immediate fix because the pastor of our church is a close family friend and his children, whom me and my brothers grew up with and are extremely close to, and my brothers are already helping me and my cousin every week to pass out food to the people. Another short-term goal that I can easily see to immediately is using the weekly church announcements so that people who ae members of the church know about it also. There are around 80 people in our church, and around 60 of them are elderly people who mostly live by themselves. Without working, some of them are living in precarious financial situations and I believe that as a church we should work together to make sure that they know they have an available way of being able to feed themselves every week. By making the people aware of the opportunity available to them, we can help give them a little more ease.
Both of my parents are Hispanic. My dad is from Mexico and arrived in the United States when he was 19 to work and help provide for his family back in his country. My mother is from Argentina and her family moved here when she was 15. She learned English, graduated and became a teacher to help Hispanic students and families and teach English Second Language. My parents taught me to work hard and help the community every chance I get. They are my biggest role models. Since I was little I would see them translate for people in stores, provide advice to Hispanics, and the list goes on. I am proud to be able to speak English and Spanish fluently. I am able to help newcomer students at my school and translate for them and explain class work when they need help. I also help newcomers at my school communicate with teachers. I volunteer at the local Elementary school where my mother works, Franklin Elementary, and I am a mentor to several of her Hispanic students. Every time I go the students get so happy to see me and they see me as a role model. They always tell me they want to go to North Surry High school (the High School I attend) and play football like I do. I always tell them they can do anything they set their mind to do and if they work hard they will be able to achieve their goals. My mother tells me her students are always asking about me and want to see me. That makes me feel good about myself because I know I am making a difference and inspiring the future Hispanic generation of my small town. I also use my bilingual skills to help people when I am out and about that need help. Multiple times I helped Hispanic people that couldn't communicate in the stores and restaurants.
My dream is to go to college and become an engineer. I want to give back to my community and continue to help Hispanic people and everyone I can. I want to continue to volunteer at churches, schools, and community events. I want to have a degree in engineering and go back to my local elementary school and show kids that everything is possible if they work hard and achieve their dreams.
Receiving this scholarship would ease the financial burden of college for my family and allow me to focus on academic success. My mother is a teacher in a public school in North Carolina and she is still paying for her college education. This scholarship would help me focus on my studies and fully commit to becoming a skilled engineer and to give back to my community as I progress toward my engineering degree.
The first time I truly thought about justice, I was sitting in a courtroom, completely alone. I was sixteen, and I had to explain to a judge why I couldn’t live at home anymore. There were no lawyers beside me, no advocates to speak on my behalf. Just me, trying to convince a room full of adults that I mattered. That moment didn’t feel like justice. It felt like survival. And that is where my understanding of justice began.
To me, justice is not just about laws or courts. It is about being seen, heard, and protected, even when you are young, poor, or forgotten. Justice means standing in the gap when no one else will. It is not perfect fairness, because the world isn’t fair. But justice is the promise that we will try anyway, that we will build systems that fight for the people who are usually left behind.
I have seen what happens when that promise is broken. I was raised in a home shaped by loss, addiction, and untreated mental illness. My biological parents were not part of my life. My guardian father passed away when I was young, and my guardian mother never finished high school. When things at home became unsafe, I had to remove myself before I turned eighteen. I didn’t have a legal guidebook. I just had my voice, and I used it.
That experience changed me. It gave me grit, yes, but it also gave me purpose. I plan to major in Political Science and Philosophy at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, and afterward, attend law school. My long-term goal is to work in legal and policy reform, especially around juvenile justice, mental health advocacy, and access to education. I want to fight for a society where kids like me don’t have to represent themselves in court. Where no one falls through the cracks because their story is too complicated or their background too messy.
Justice, to me, is not a concept. It is a mission. It is personal. I write about these experiences, too. I have already published two books before the age of eighteen, because I believe storytelling is one of the most powerful tools for change. Stories teach empathy, and empathy makes justice possible.
I see myself contributing to a more just society by becoming the person I once needed. A voice for the unheard. A challenger of broken systems. A builder of better ones. Not just someone who learns the law, but someone who uses it to protect, heal, and empower.
Justice starts when someone decides they will not let silence win. I’ve already made that decision.
