My mom has always told me that if a person asks you for a dollar that you can't provide, look into your bag and give them your lunch or the next best thing. She has always placed my mindset to be one that reminds me that I am privileged with what we worked for and that God always multiplies your hard-earned work when you follow in his example. I've always liked to help people. It builds a stronger connection between people and shows me that life can be rewarding in a way that may seem small to me but huge to somebody else. I began volunteering when I began to attend a small private school for low-income families. It was a catholic school that was very in touch with their community. They would arrange food dispensaries for the community, volunteer at Good Neighbor, a soup kitchen in our community, and have us participate in volunteer work for events the city set up to help others that brought life back to our streets. I could see the change we made in many's lives and it was honestly the most rewarding feeling I have ever felt. As I mentioned, I went to a low-income school. My family hasn't had the best luck with lottery tickets or work bonuses. We have always worked very hard to get to where we are today. During my childhood, I grew up in a very beaten-down house. We struggled a lot financially to keep up with the world, but that didn't stop us. When I reached my teenage years I decided it was time to begin to contribute to my family's needs. At the age of thirteen, I began to work and gave my paychecks to my mom for groceries. I haven't had a break from work since then. My parents say they got lucky with me because they never asked this of me and I made the decision to always be helpful. We finished paying for our house and we no longer rely on food stamps to keep us going. These little things were big accomplishments for my family, however, College came around and so did the large tuition bills we couldn't afford. I have been on BOLD throughout my entire college journey. So far, I have won one scholarship that was a huge help for the debt I already had. I am very close to graduating and have some more money that I am paying off to finish. This scholarship would be what shoots me straight into financial liberty and will allow me to continue my studies and possibly start saving for my future. Thank you for reading and considering my essay to be a part of your scholarship opportunity.

For this scholarship, I will be answering question number three. Education systems try their best to give the best advantages to each of their students, however, there is always one major obstacle that stops districts from giving the students the best type of education; I'm talking about money. Due to money and the economic issues we see nowadays, school districts have become a constant target that is often attacked for not giving enough or for not fulfilling the necessities of each student. This is the constant negativity I see in my environment. I live in Brownsville, Texas. It is a small city that borders Mexico. My hometown is imbued with families of immigrants who came to find a better life for the next generations. I am part of this community since both my parents were born and raised in Matamoros Tamaulipas Mexico. I am proud of who I am and what my family has grown to be through many complicated and rough moments. Growing up, I lived in a bad neighborhood, or as some may call it, " a barrio". I didn't grow up with many kids around my streets since many of them weren't allowed to play outside in their front yards due to fear of the dangerous streets we dwelled in. Most of the houses the students who I went to school with and where I lived were very broken down. My house had no insulation, central air conditioning, heating systems, windows, or even a fence. I witnessed a lot of violence and dangerous situations growing up in streets like these and so did my peers. Many of us had barely any money for proper school supplies and we continued to recycle our backpacks for many years. The schools we attended were also given very little money. I remember clearly I had a teacher who cared so much for us that she used her personal money to provide us with pencils, erasers, and notebooks for school. If I'm being honest, they began the change of this negative environment and made an impact on me since I would like to continue this change. I am currently a college student studying to become a teacher. My goal is to one day open a school that is able to provide a safe and nurturing environment where students are offered everything I couldn't have growing up. I want to be a help to my community by offering schools with the technology that helps each students and that provide every help that the students and their families may need. It is a well-deserved gift that they should receive for their families. Schools are the foundations of each child's growth and education. Pulling away the negativity of danger and lack of money would be the best change I could make for our newer generations. It is the change I would have loved to have witnessed at a young age, and it is the change that I strongly believe much of my community has earned.

I come from a low-income community and family. Growing up in a place like this was difficult; I won't lie or sugarcoat it, but it taught me a lot about respect, admiration, responsibility, and financial literacy. My parents lived on back-to-back paychecks. My family shopped at second-hand stores and got together with our community and churches for donations and good neighboring. My school supplies came from church donations, our clothes were hand-me-downs from my family members, and our food came from food stamps or donations. Though we had all of these privileges, I knew and understood what it was to save money. As an elementary student, I helped my mom prep our weekly meals on Sunday afternoons. We left a Tupperware for each family member in the fridge for each day of the week. I was bullied at school for owning clothing that was worn out or shoes that fit a little too big to last me a while, but I knew that I had more than others did and never let those comments faze me. I had a friend tell me about two years ago that they remember me telling my peers that it was okay for me to have the things that I had because my parents worked for them and that I felt proud to wear them. They said that my words at a young age changed them and are the reason why they wanted to be somebody who helped out their community. I plan to educate my children about the financial disadvantages many have and why it is important to still treat them as equals and help them in any way possible so they may live their lives without the events of mistreatment due to their economic status. I went to a private middle school, but it's not like the ones you see in the movies. This school taught me more about financial literacy than anything else in the world. This school was meant to be to help low-income students achieve a well-deserved education. They were a huge help to the community. They gave out food and clothing donations to those in need. I liked to be a part of this. It gave me a sense of how much money was worth and to see how fortunate some were than others. If I am being completely honest, this is where my financial literacy plan begins. My life plan, and hopefully becomes my greatest achievement, is to one day open an education center starting from pre-school up to high school that can help students in any financial way I can offer them. I want to give them technology other schools cant offer, scholarships that could be refundable to them to use as their own, and equal education to those who have more financial freedom than they do. I want to have classes that teach them about the real world and even teach them about real world-money plans. This plan is important to me because I want to be able to teach them how to save not only money but their recourses as well. I believe it is important for students to know these things about life. The lack of knowledge in these subjects is the reason why many are still stuck living paycheck to paycheck and can't amount to live up to their full potential. Growing up, learning about financial literacy in schools is a necessity, and it is that plan I would like to offer to my community one day. I have begun this journey by certifying as an educator, and now to the next chapter.

My plans were never very organized until last year. I was always nervous of making the wrong choice and regretting it for the rest of my life. This all changed when I began teaching. Teaching is a profession that is being taken for granted. I have a voice and I strive for it to be heard. I plan to reach the furthest amount of education I can receive as a teacher. I plan to become a Spanish Instructor with teaching credentials, I believe it is important to have a teacher in your life that can always help you learn and understand two or more languages. It would help in further careers and even in daily small talks. I would like to later save money to open a small school for low income families. I went to a middle school that helped my family in a situation of low income, I would like to open more opportunities for other students ands teachers like this further into my career. A school like this is ran by the parents, the students, and the staff. Everybody gets an opinion and a fair chance to say what they need to say. These school help students gain more confidence and help them gain guidance into their future career goals. I would like to have the school grow with its community. It’s a good way to bring in volunteers, donators, and much more to help families who need a school like this. I’m a Catholic and would love to implement the good morals the religion shares with us through this school. Sharing with our neighbors, being kind to one another, lending a helping hand, be the shoulder to cry on, keep respect between one another, and so much more. I believe that the opportunities and connections that i will one day have with my school, will help a student gain the scholar and financial needs they need. Personally, I never had enough money, not even to buy myself or my mother anything pretty. Being the reason other students can avoid this situation makes me believe that I would be leaving a positive imprint on the students and their families life’s. I want them to leave with the image of a good old, and for them to later share the same kindness wit others on their daily life’s. Teaching is important and one day, it will be recognized.

A healthy state of mind and way of living has never been an easy task in my book. It’s even harder when you find out freshman year of high school that you are clinically depressed. Being completely honest, I learned the hard way that I need to love the body I was gifted, because it was the only one I will ever have. I always have strived for the best, no matter the consequences of prioritizing anything over my health. In school, I always had to bring home Honor Rolls, nothing lower than a 92. I starved for my parents approval. I had to have it. Sophomore year of high school many unfortunate events occurred in school that hit back to back giving me heavy anxiety and depression. The panic attacks I had were rare according to my pediatrician. I became immobile from the attacks, causing the right side of my body to stop moving completely. I’m glad physical therapy exists. After this incident occurred, I stopped eating and hydrating myself. I was in no good shape to even stand. Remember how I said I had to learn the hard way, I’ll spare you from the details, but just know that hospital beds are very uncomfortable. It took months for me to realize what I was doing to myself mentally, physically, and in my nutrition health. It was time for a change. I stated by placing more efforts into my meal plans. I researched foods that release serotonin, that gave me plenty of energy to go through the day, and even new receipts to keep my mind busy. I made time every morning, afternoon, and evening to keep track of my meals and of my assignments so that I wouldn’t forget one or the other. My body felt peace for once in many months. It felt full and energized, I did miss the feeling. My friends encouraged me to join a gym with them, I didn’t think it would become part of my daily routine until I began to think of it as fun. I now feel stronger and confident. I am more organized with my planning in school now that I need to create splits for my workouts. My mental health was the hardest to fix. Some people say that the first step is always admitting you are wrong, well, they were correct. All my decisions were wrong. I learned to speak my mind and to never hold anything in anymore. Communication is truly key to everything, especially peace of mind. If anything is bothering you, I believe it is better to speak about it with the other half of the issue. Before I could incorporate school into this, I had to get comfortable with the idea of daily planning and responsibility. I set new goals and do everything for me and no one else. I maintain my state of mind reminding myself of the low I once reached and thinking of how difficult it was to get back up. My motivation to stay healthy nutritionally and physically is the satisfaction of a good workout and knowing that I can do anything. I feel better when I know I can keep track of school and myself, and that’s the biggest motivation anybody could have.

Charlie was possibly, in the least amount of words to put it into, the best dog in the world. I was nine years old when he came into our life. He was gifted to me as a birthday present to be my best friend and best companion, which is actually pretty ironic because if you ever had the chance to witness our relationship, you’d think we’d hate each other. Charlie taught me what responsibility is at an early age by tearing couch cushions, leaving smelly surprises under the table, and digging holes in the old mattress my sister and I shared. I know you’re probably thinking, well if he did all that where was the responsibility…I was the one who had to teach him how to stop doing what got him in trouble. As a nine year old, I had the strongest faith that I could handle anything with ease. Boy was I wrong. Charlie didn’t make it easier either. I like to believe it was his way of getting back at me for waking him up to go to the restroom too much. At six months I finally managed to get him to tell me when he had to go outside to do his business. I got him chew toys with my chore allowance so he would stop bitting the couches and digging into our already ripped mattress. Everything seemed fine with him, just a normal, healthy, energetic chihuahua, until he wasn’t. Charlie was diagnosed with cancer at eight months. He lost all of his hair except two rectangular spots above his eyes that made him look like he had eyebrows. The vet let us know that he had no more than a year to live. Funny thing, he outlived the vet. Charlie grew to be eleven years old, sadly we lost him to COVID two months ago. I still think of the many memories he made for my family and I. I look at all the birthday, graduation, and every day to day pictures I have with him. Charlie didn’t just teach me responsibility, he taught me what family truly is, he was like a human being, an actual brother. He taught me how to laugh and smile over silly little things he would do like cry out of excitement when my dad carried him. Although we would constantly fight, growl at each other, and annoy one another, he played his role as my best friend perfectly. I will forever be great full to have experienced such love and companionship from such a noble dog.

At the age of fourteen, I had to make a difficult decision for my family’s s benefit. I didn’t have a car or any experience of working in the real world, however, I was able to attain a position as a teacher’s assistant in a daycare next door to my house. To be completely honest, I never pictured myself as an educator, much less as one who would work along side of infants, toddlers, and pre schoolers. When I began to work in the daycare, it was only a care center. It wasn’t until my boss applied to the Rising Star Programs that we became a Learning Center. I was the only bilingual teacher in the learning center, this was very beneficial, not only to the other teachers, but to the students too. I didn’t realize it, but to many, I was already being a teacher by using both of the languages I know. When working with the students, I always made sure to say my sentences in both English and Spanish. I learned that it is best to implement this skill into the students life while they are still in the early ages of 0-11. It was fun to sing songs in both languages, not only because they were having fun, but I could hear their pronunciations improving as well as observing them utilizing the languages in their day to day conversations. COVID-19 struck in the year 2020, I had just turned 18, this meant I could finally have a classroom of my own. I was used to teaching a small portion of what is considered Early Childhood Education, I never really had a chance to work with the older students. With the chaos that 2020 brought, I had to learn how to manage a classroom of 23 students, all of them belonging to different grade levels. Most understood both English and Spanish, making it easier for me to communicate with them. I was a classroom tutor, if they did not understand lessons, assignments, or homework, I was there to help. I got the opportunity to work along side many teachers from Early Childhood Education. They guided and monitored my ways of teaching, and helped me with constructive criticism. I understood the realities of working in this career, and learned to be patient and accepting of the role I would be playing for my students. In 2021, I decided to explore more within the Early Education system. I moved to Houston and applied as a Bilingual RTI Paraprofessional at an elementary in the district ALDINE ISD. I made the choice to select this district to teach in a diverse environment. I taught students of all kinds of ethnicities, backgrounds, and with different stories. The students always looked excited when I picked them up from their classrooms. I was told I was a fun teacher for them, and made it easier for them to understand what they were struggling with. This painted a picture way beyond my expectations as to what teaching really is. Being a teacher is a job and a role that is unappreciated and unvalued by outsiders. I used to be one of those people that believed teaching was a piece of cake, I was completely wrong. Through the experiences I was given, I learned that teaching makes a difference. You don't just have to be a teacher, you can be their creative liberation, their friend, and even the person they trust the most. This is the passion that comes with teaching, knowing you can be so much more that what you believed you could be.