Financial stability will allow me to focus on what I'm already doing, using and building that technology that helps other people. My family and I are at the bottom of tax income bracket. I'm considered low income, first generation, neurodivergent, and Mexican American. For me I've never known what true stability is. Yet I haven't allowed it from stopping me from achieving and building the future I so desire. The choices I'm making that are helping me build towards financial stability are plenty. I have become acquainted with stocks from a short to long term perspectives and at building software. I will also be in the path of merging both fields in order to takes this upon the next level and learning other asset classes. It feels odd though, it is like I'm between two different worlds. My every day is focused on getting by and applying myself while my future could look vastly different. Improving through these fields by raising my capabilities, becoming a full time software engineer, and looking at other ways of letting my money make more money are ways I'm looking to build financial stability. If it was just for myself, I wouldn't try like I currently do. I'm looking to help others like my family, friends, and others who struggle as much or worse than I currently am. Since the start of the last year I have faced issues that would break most. It based on my unique set of cards that I mentioned at the start. I nearly lost my home, nearly lost my father, my mother has been in the verge of being separated from us, I had no job for awhile, lost my mental health, burned out, developed extreme stress that started affecting my health and so much more. I could have easily quit. However, my family needed me more than ever. During that time was when I also became really capable within the fields of software and stocks. I saw it an as opportunity to help my family out. I'm glad I have those skills though, no one can ever take them away from me. And this is only for the last two years of my life, the first 19 weren't substantially better. As you could see though, I really don't know what financial stability is. However, I'm not letting those circumstances determine what I can or cannot do. Recently, at my school I set out to lead students within my school in order to teach AI literacy and also build a resource for it in which I was project founder. I saw a problem affecting others that could leave behind others with the background such as mine and decided to do something about it. No professor or institutional help. The presentation and resource came out great, I'm thankful for the other students who helped me bring this to life. They were part of students of organizations from business, statistics, computer science, and engineering. While I was leading and creating this, I was also facing many personal issues at once that I was overwhelmed. I still pulled through and here is the resource: https://alex-cmd-dev.github.io/Curious-AInough/#/. I'm not waiting for financial stability to be the change I want to see in the world. I'm already doing it in some of the worst conditions I'll ever face. It would just allow to me to do it with a clearer mind.

I'm a computer science student. I'm also neurodivergent, first generation, low income, and Mexican American. My goal after graduation was to become a software engineer for a couple years and eventually set out to build my own vision and to build technology that helps people out. I have been working on projects and sharpening my skills outside of school for my career. However, this path I was set on following I came to realization that in a few years it might not even possible. With so many tragedies going around such as the effects of climate change, wars, technological developments such as AI, etc. I felt hopeless and powerless but I turned that into action. Recently, I started an initiative within my school in order to teach AI literacy. I had no institutional backing. What I did have is other students who believed in my vision. Student organizations from engineering, computer science , and business joined my caused and made a couple things happen. I designed, founded, and the led the educational curriculum, while they took parts of my vision presented it and expanded upon it. Their role was focused on presenting the workshop. It went well and we had fun. The initiative is known as Curious AInough. It focus on the interaction between a person and artificial intelligence and keeping your critical thinking rather giving it away to the tool. Here is the resource: https://alex-cmd-dev.github.io/Curious-AInough/#/. It felt necessary for me to make this happen. This technology can further deepen the current inequality gaps for many people around the world. Seeing the times we are heading into it felt urgent to get this across. I'm glad many students around my school joined my cause and helped make this happen. I'm not done yet though. I'm not aiming to make an impact in my community only, the goal is systemic impact. No one should be left behind. So I'm not waiting to have my career, have resources, and be successful to make a positive impact in the world. I already began and I'm in my senior year of university. This is just the beginning though. As I keep developing my software engineering skills and others I will bring other ideas to light. My background has given me deep empathy for people with the same background as mine. I'm hoping to make their situations a little better even though I won't completely change it. Thank you for your time

I'm a computer science student. I have built different web applications and programs. Recently though I decided to take upon a different type of task. I raised and lead an initiative within my school to teach Artificial Intelligence literacy. Rather than giving prompting techniques or telling people to do tricks, I focused on the critical thinking aspect of utilizing the tool. Things such as researching and validation, brainstorming, learning, etc. What my role was it was designing, architecting, researching , and providing the information in a manner that others were able to digest it and also teach it. I also had the idea of bringing different student organizations across different fields not only computer science to teach this within my school. Their role was to take the information I provided and elevate with examples within their own field and interdisciplinary ones. We ended up having student organizations within computer science, statistics, business, and engineering. We were also supposed to have healthcare but school got in the way. There was two parts to it. A presentation and website to it. We named it Curious AInough: Elevate your thinking. It was a struggle since we had a two week timeline so I designed it in a way that every one was able to contribute without having to constantly meet. We got several students to show up and the rest of my peers present each of their sections. Now the website I have shared within my school and shared it to other universities and colleges across the nation in order to address the systemic issue of AI literacy. I even shared across the internet and I had a professor tell me come lead students within my school. A professor within my school told me it was great seeing a student take initiative. It is not a finalized resource though. My hope is that other are able to expand,share it, and teach it in their own ways. The reason I wanted to create this resource and educate others is because I saw people like me: neurodivergent, low income, first generation, and minority who already struggling as it is and AI further making these circumstances tougher. I believe everyone should be well equipped to utilize the tool in our present and future we are heading into. No one should be left behind despite their circumstances. Now if you are also Curious AInough feel free to check it out: https://alex-cmd-dev.github.io/Curious-AInough/#/.

The cards I was dealt at birth was being a minority, first generation, low income, and neurodivergent. Those cards have been extremely tough to play with especially in a game that is fundamentally broken. I'm Mexican American, with adhd, and also immigrant parents. For me obtaining a college degree is like reaching the top of Mount Everest. It'll allow me to give me back to my family who have sacrificed a lot for me. Well that used to be the case before I began going to college. In sophomore and junior year of college, many of the issues those cards I was dealt with gave me were turned up to a hundred. It nearly broke me as a person. It was like dark pit that I kept trying to climb out of yet I kept I getting pushed down back into. I had never felt so hopeless and powerless. My life was a chaos and my mind too. After getting through that time period, I came to realize though that many of the issues I had to faced were due to systemic issues. College wasn't built for neurodivergent, first generation, minority , and low income students. From the many life experiences I've faced due to the unique cards I was given, I realized I don't want to follow the standard broken path. I want to build my own path. A path were my passion for technology allows me to build technology to that helps others. I hate knowing that others suffer like me or worse due to decisions outside their scope. In which the focus is survival rather than living what life has to offer. I can't sit back knowing that I can possibly help with the capability I believe I have. While I might not be able to change how the world is, I can at least help alleviate some of the pain given by it. Going to college used to mean giving back to my family. Now I believe I can do more than help my own, I believe I can do and build things that are bigger than myself. Completing college will allow me to gain leverage in order to build my own path. Outside a path that was never built for me, that has given my family, others, and myself a whole lot of suffering and continues to. A college degree will open a path of opportunities to fuel the vision I have in mind.

I'm not a just a first generation student, but also neurodivergent and low income. The trifecta, I'm just joking. Being first generation is about holding a heavy backpack while traveling a forest which you don't have the map to. You don't even know where to get started. It is a weight like no other. Every obstacle you face has the possibility of taking you down yet giving up is not an option. You are also finding the path for those who come after you. The unique circumstances I have been given from birth have given me complex obstacles that I didn't even know were possible. Many of the challenges I have faced, I'm not sure how I have overcame them but the thought of wanting to take my family forward is what kept me going even when I struggled with mental health and I nearly broke as person. Knowing that people also struggle like me or even worse, it is so sad that people have struggle like that. Being first generation is having to excel in a system that was never meant for us. Most people would rather succeed in that broken system but me personally I rather build my own way out of it. I would like to build technology that helps others not just in order to make money. I don't want to be an accomplished software engineer that is not fulfilling, I rather help alleviate some of the pain in the world. My unique life circumstances have given me a perspective and I'd rather take a bet on myself and my ideas than go down the traditional route. This scholarship would allow me to continue focusing on my education, gain the credentials and skills I need, in order to eventually focus on the path I want to build. A path where I get to help others with the capability I have .

Being first-generation is like going into a forest with no maps. You have to find your own way out of it. My family and I moved to the US, where my mother found work as a cook at a flea market on the weekends and my father worked for a phone company spinning signs outside in the heat. Those jobs barely provided for themselves, but they also had my brother and me to feed. My parents shielded my brother and me from most of these struggles. They would tell me, "Go to college unless you want to work out in the heat and in poor conditions." I wish it would have been that straightforward. Throughout middle and high school I had great grades, but I never had direction on where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do. I decided to enroll at the local university, but this is where the challenges of being first-generation that my parents had shielded me from finally appeared. How would I pay for university? How would I even find opportunities? Was the degree I chose even right for me? Will I even be able to help my parents out? I had quit my retail job in order to work at my school and focus on my career. Out of nowhere my mother was detained. My father wasn't able to find work anymore since he could also be detained. No one in the family had a job, and I had to step up for my family while I was still a college student trying to figure things out. The most stressful part was figuring out my mother's situation. It took a heavy toll on my mental health, but giving up wasn't an option. I built projects, maintained high grades, and dealt with my mom's situation. That was a little over a year ago, and it's still sadly not over. However, I know what my path forward is, and I've learned to deal with anything thrown my way. Being first-generation has taught me that I have to outwork others who are on the same path as me. I have to be capable, independent, and understand that giving up is never an option. I learned those lessons from my parents and have applied them to the best of my ability. It has given me a fire to excel and help my family, who gave up so much for my brother and me. Their goal was never for themselves to succeed; it was to see their children build a better life than they had. I'm passionate about being first generation because I want to help my parents who gave up their home in order for their children to have a better life. I know what way is out of the forest now it just took some time.

A project that I worked that I was most passionate about was creating my first web app. It was the first software project I had ever worked on. It was built with Javascript and React for the frontend of it and for the backend it utilized python and Django. It also has JWT token authentication and Posgressql for the database. The app was quite straightforward and it was the first full project that I had ever coded on my own. It connected to Google's Gemini model through their api access in order to allow you to create flashcards. So as user you'd be able to submit any document in order to study from it. It came during one of the toughest periods in my life were everything was falling apart for. However, this project allowed me to keep on going and work on what I most passionate about being technology. It was also tougher since I had undiagnosed ADHD at that time. When I first finished it felt great and it was the first project I added to my portfolio. The project was however challenging as a beginner. Eventually I became a lead at student organization within my college and I transformed this project even further. It had been months since that dark period within my life had occurred and I had also improved as a software developer. So that simple project and transformed it into a learning tool so other students were able to learn the different concepts I had learned from my project. I added explanations throughout the code explaining how each different piece connected into the bigger picture of full stack development. The repository for my project now had explanations for concepts such as apis, databases, dataflow, etc. It had become a learning tool for others. I presented this with another member as part of a workshop where I explained the web development to several students. It isn't the most technically impressive project but it's the project I hold closest to my heart. It began during a period where I had never felt so lonely and down to a tool that was able to help others. Technology has inspired me ever since I was a kid. I saw the development of smartphones from devices that were alright to now being a pocket computer. It was what inspired to take the path to become a software engineer. Now though I want to create technology that is able to help others and not just be a product. This change of perspective was given to me by the dark period I went through and the fullstack app I had made.

Since I was a kid I knew that my dream was to work in the tech industry. I come from a low income immigrant household but that didn't stop me keeping up with the latest releases more specifically smartphones. I remember being so fascinated with the release of the Samsung Galaxy S8 even though I couldn't afford it. During my middle school and high school years, they always made us present about our dream career, mine was to be a software engineer. I took mostly all available computer science courses in my school but I still didn't know where to begin to chase my dream of becoming a software engineer. I knew what that I wanted to become a software engineer but I never knew if I had what it takes to become one. Recently I had the worst time period of my life but my dream of becoming a software engineer was what kept me going during those dark times in which I had felt so hopeless. I wanted to give back to my parents who worked minimum wage jobs to help support my brother and I. I know there was no guarantee of me obtaining a job in the industry but I still decided to pursue my dreams. My dream job is to become a software engineer if it wasn't obvious enough. My two goals are to become a great software engineer and help others live life not just survive it. There's probably other great candidates out there but I believe I'm the best candidate due to my ambition,drive, and resilience. The odds have always been against me due to me being a minority and low income, not an ideal combination. During the worst time period of my life I managed to create two full stack apps and while now looking back they might not perfect and can be improved in plenty of ways, it goes to show much I really want this career path.