Growing up, my mother would work 2 jobs to support me and my sister. She was a single parent living paycheck to paycheck while raising two daughters. My mother has shown me that nothing is impossible, because she is living proof that when the odds are stacked against you, winning is still an option. I have faced many challenges in my life, including racism, homophobia, and misogyny. I battle anxiety and depression, and I am still here today living on this earth because my mother showed me that when you persevere through the challenges in this world, you become a better person, inside and out. I want to show those who also suffer from the things I mentioned that there is light at the end of the tunnel and that they can help someone in return. I want to donate to those less fortunate than me and be there for them in any way I can. Someone did that for me when I was younger, and she gave me the strength to continue on in life. My goals for my college life and beyond are for myself and also for her. I am in multiple clubs at my high school I am actively learning stuff to help prepare myself for when I start college. I do this all for my mom, who has been beaten down by the world so much that I want to help her back up like she did for me.

My mental health has been a bumpy road of getting better and then going back downhill. I suffer from anxiety and depression. For the past few years, one of my main goals has been to think of my future when I get so low, that I start thinking about what it would be like to not be here anymore. My goal of go to college, get the degree I've always wanted, walk down the aisle, or take care of my mom when she grows old. I've pulled myself out of that hole many times, and I recognize that I will have to continue to do that for the rest of my life. My mom has been my rock since my unfortunate journey of having depression started. My relationship with her is my strongest one compared to anyone else. She knows what it feels like to go through this, and she wants me to know that I'm never alone. She makes my world a better place. A world that I want to be in, a world that I want to contribute to and enjoy. My understanding of the society around me is that everyone has problems. Mine are no different from theirs. We should all lift each other up, and be there for one another. Once we do that, nothing can stop us from falling back down again.

Getting my college degree would change the path of my life drastically. It would mean that all the hard work that I have put into getting the degree, the energy, time, effort, and money was worth it. Since I am the first generation to get a degree in my family, I have no one to look to for help as I apply to colleges or scholarships, or when I need help filling out certain forms or what I need to be successful in my time in college. When I become the first person in my family to go to college, later on, I can help future generations with their questions or worries over the process. I like to think of the future and what this degree could mean for me. I think of myself as successful in the future, with a paid-off house and a car that I can trust. I think about later on in my life when I have to take care of my mother when she is at the end of hers. I want to be able to afford fostering teens who are about to age out of the system, and how they will feel scared and not know what to do. I want to be there to help them get a job and give them a stable house to live in while they figure out what they want to do with their life. I am passionate about helping the people who are less fortunate than me because I know what it's like to live paycheck to paycheck, going to food banks every week, and having to stretch the little bit of gas we have left in the tank till the next payday. Because of those who help the unfortunate ones, I have been able to pursue my interests and what can benefit me in college. I've joined my high school's robotics team and have been on it for the last two years. I've learned so many things about what goes into making a robot together as a team, that eventually led us to winning an award. I've made connections with teachers and many female engineers that I can look for guidance to for help. I built the driver station for my robotics team (where two students control the robot in competitions) as my senior project. I have also learned much from completing that project. My passion is to get a degree in aerospace engineering, and eventually work for NASA. I cannot wait to start on this journey.

My Mexican heritage has shown me that there are many different types of people in the world who are different than me. My father was born in Mexico to two Mexican parents. He immigrated to the United States a few years before he and my mother met. I strive to make both of them proud, along with the other Mexican girls who want to go into STEM. Every time I have my doubts, I remember that I have to keep pushing through and prove those wrong, those who think that because I am not 100% white, I will not make it in the engineering field. What I hope to accomplish through my education is to get a master's degree in Aerospace Engineering. I want to bring more diversity to the programs, such as encouraging more Mexican women to join the STEM field like I will. I will apply to internships while I am at college as that is the best way to get real-time knowledge and training. With my financial circumstances, we do not have enough money to fund my college experience. We have money for groceries, but if we pay for that we lose our phone bill because we used the money for food rather than paying the bill. My father is not in my life anymore, and with that, he does help to financially support me. I live with my mother, but she is a single mom working a 50+ hour a-week job while raising two teenage girls. This scholarship would ease the stress of me and my mother, knowing that we have more help in sending me to college. I have become the first person in my family to apply and get accepted into college. I plan to make my family and myself proud with the hard work I have already put into making my dream come true.

I will be the first person in my family to attend college. They are all so very supportive of me, but we are a low-income family. I am being raised by my single mother, and we live off of one income. She is so proud of how far I have come and wants me to do better than she ever could do. The rest of my family is living off government aid, and I strive to be able to support myself as I get older. My father is from Mexico. He has no citizenship, and his family all live across the border, deep in Mexico. I have never met any of his family other than him. I have no financial support from anyone in his family, and I have none from my mothers. Getting this scholarship would put me on the right path to success and I can make my family proud. I plan on going to college and studying in aerospace engineering, which makes a decent amount of money. When I am old enough with a stable career doing what I love, I can help those in my family with their college tuition or their textbooks or pay for their housing. I want to spend the money I earn on things that will benifit others in my family, so they don't have to worry about if stuff like their phones getting turned off or if they need to go to a food bank to get something to eat (my phone is currently turned off because my mom bought groceries instead of paying the phone bill, so I speak from experience.) I am an honor roll student, I am the section leader in my highschool concert band, marching band, and pep band. I am a member of the National Honor Society, a girl scouts troop, and my schools robotics team. I am able to do all of this because my mother is my biggest supporter of my dreams and passions. Winning this scholarship would show my mother that other people believe in me too. My dream is to get accepted into college and graduate to make not only my family proud, but myself as well. My mother tells me that I am often too hard on myself, but I feel I have to be if I want to be as good as I want to be when I'm older and out of college. I want to leave an impact on the world.