From an early age, my family instilled the value of helping others in me. As a young kid I would always translate bills in English to Spanish to my family members. Throughout high school, I have also been passionate about volunteering and working toward my goals. Thanks to discipline, dedication, faculty, and family who have guided me, I will graduate with a 3.93 unweighted GPA and 33 college credits. Juggling academics on top of sports, clubs, organizations, and a job has been difficult. However, I firmly believe that being involved in high school has prepared me to become the disciplined and involved person I am today. From volunteering for Habitat for Humanity through NHS, teaching children to cook through FCCLA, to removing invasive plant species in an Indiana park through FFA, serving others has always put a smile on my face. Service for others has impacted my character and allowed me to grow into the strong, courageous leader I am today. I would love to continue helping those in need by pursuing health care. I will major in biology at UTSA for my Physician Assistant Prerequisites and later apply to UT Health San Antonio for the next two years of education. However, the biggest obstacle I may face in the upcoming years is financial hardship due to expensive tuition fees within or outside the university. I plan on funding my future expenses on my own. I refuse to become a financial burden to my father, who works 12-hour shifts and still struggles to provide for my family. I want to show my family that the sacrifices to give me a better quality of life may and will be worth it. I believe my goal of funding my educational career goals will be accomplished through my continuous hard work and labor.

In the early 2000’s, my parents moved from Mexico to Texas, to provide me with a better quality of life. Mexicans are known as some of the most hard-working people in the world and I take pride in participating in Mexican values. Whether it be at school, at work, or in my personal life, I always think about how I need to work hard and try my best in everything that I do. My Mexican heritage has also completely altered the person that I am nowadays as I am surrounded by a family that taught me the values of religion, honesty, and unity. I have always valued education and have accomplished many things thanks to it. Education works wonders for one’s life. Pursuing an education and caring for my grades has already granted me free experiences, trips, and allowed me to fly for the first time, visiting Indianapolis for a week. Education is a blessing in disguise but sadly, my previous ancestors did not get an opportunity to experience an education to the full of their capabilities due to the lack of funds. This being said, I really and truly understand the responsibilities that pursuing higher education may come along with, and I am willing to make sacrifices in order to pursue my higher education. I would love to become a dentist one day because I was once a shy, unconfident girl who wished she had a nice smile. Thankfully, with the aid of many dentist specialists and many dental practices, I am finally confident in my smile. I would love to contribute to my community by becoming a part of the next generation of dentists who fix smiles and heal oral health. I also know that I will contribute to my Hispanic community by showing those within the Hispanic community that becoming a doctor is possible. My father, often working 12-hour shifts, has always worked hard to provide for my family. Although my household relies on only one income, I contribute a small portion to the bills with my part-time job. However, this small contribution is not enough to get me through college. I need your help. I would love to win this scholarship because of all the previously stated and I would like to thank the organizers of this scholarship beforehand, for providing students with opportunities to be one step closer to their dreams.

Hello. My name is Daphne Lopez, and I am currently a senior in high school. I believe pursuing a doctorate in dentistry is the career that I believe is meant for me due to my passion for helping others live an improved quality of life. A Dentist is a doctor who helps patients improve their teeth visually and functionally. Dentists of multiple specialties have inspired me to pursue a dental career to help patients, just as many dentists have helped me. Growing up wanting to succeed, I knew I would have to work hard from an early age. As soon as I could, I began joining clubs, sports, dual enrollment, volunteering, and even working. I knew I could learn much from participating and giving back to my school and community. I was able to do so throughout high school while maintaining a GPA higher than 3.9 out of a four scale and currently being ranked third in my class. However, when high school first began, I felt self-conscious about myself. My smile was the culprit. I had a serious underbite, still had some baby teeth, and had severe crooked teeth. I had to make countless trips to dental specialists such as orthodontists and periodontists. These professionals always treated me with the utmost respect and care. My dentists made me feel hope for my future self. Slowly but surely, all the procedures and my dentists' hard work paid off. I now frequently get compliments on my smile like never before. Just as several dentists changed my life and that of many others, I want to improve others' lives. Not just in the lives of my future patients, but I would love to make an impact in the lives of those within the same community as I. I also cannot wait to give back to my family, who has sacrificed so much for me to have the best possibilities in life. I believe that becoming a dentist will allow me to continue to give back to my community by not only bettering people's teeth but also by helping those in need all around the community. One example that I would be able to do is creating fun community events that will gather money for those in need, such as the unfortunate and disabled. I have a lot of experience in volunteering throughout The Texas and National FFA Organization and NHS where we have helped organize fur balls, gather meals for hurricane victims, clear forests from invasive species, as well as lots of fundraising. Therefore, I am already experienced in organizing events to provide for others. Dentistry is a high-paying and well-respected career that would perfectly allow me to inspire those around me to put in their grain of sand to help the ones in need. I would also love to start a scholarship for intelligent, dedicated, and kind students once I become a successful dentist. In conclusion, winning this scholarship will be a key component in allowing me to live out my dream of becoming "Doctor Daphne Lopez, the Dentist". I am beyond grateful for having the opportunity to participate in this scholarship competition and would like to thank you all for helping students live out their dreams. Thank you.

A doctor in dentistry is the career that I believe is meant for me to pursue due to my passion for helping others live an improved quality of life. A Dentist is a doctor who helps patients improve their teeth visually and functionally. Dentists of multiple specialties have inspired me to pursue a dental career to help patients just as many dentists have helped me. Growing up desiring to become successful, I knew I would have to work hard from an early age. As soon as I could, I began joining clubs, sports, dual enrollment, volunteering, and even working. I knew I could learn much from participating and giving back to my school and community. I was able to do so throughout high school while maintaining a GPA higher than 3.9 out of a four scale and currently being ranked third in my class. However, when high school began, I felt self-conscious about myself. My smile was the culprit. I had a serious underbite, still had some baby teeth, and had severe crooked teeth. I had to make countless trips to dental specialists such as orthodontists and periodontists. These professionals always treated me with the utmost respect and care. My dentists made me feel hope for my future self. Slowly but surely, all the procedures and my dentists' hard work paid off. I now frequently get compliments on my smile like never before. Just as several dentists changed my life as well as that of many others, I want to make improvements in others' lives. Not just in the lives of my future patients, but I would love to make an impact in the lives of those within the same community as I. I also cannot wait to give back to my family who has sacrificed so much for me to have the best possibilities in life. In conclusion, winning this scholarship will be a key component in allowing me to live out my dream of becoming "Doctor Daphne the Dentist". I am beyond grateful for having the opportunity to participate in this scholarship competition and would like to thank you all for helping students live out their dreams. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Daphne Lopez, and I am an incoming senior for the class of 2025 at Center Point, Texas. I would love to attend the Mays Business School at Texas A&M as a first-generation student; however, coming from a low-income family, attending such an expensive school is uncertain. Throughout my life, my mother has always instilled in me the value and power of education. Therefore, I believe that no matter what university my future holds, I will continue my passion for learning and pursue my degree in business. Since knowing from an early age that pursuing higher education would be a non-negotiable, I have tried hard throughout high school by keeping up with my high GPA and participating in many extracurriculars.  Thanks to my mother's persuasion to do well in school, I am currently ranked third in my high school class however, my GPA will only keep increasing because I am always willing to take extra courses. School has taught me many valuable lessons of hard work, perseverance, and dedication. Extracurriculars have taught me the act of giving back to the community and others around me by participating in activities such as food drives for people affected by natural disasters in Florida, as well as raising money for dogs to live better lives meanwhile waiting to be adopted within my community. Since an early age, I have always been around people with a business mindset. I will never forget observing my grandmother in Mexico make her living by selling plants at the local market during my visits during summer vacation from school. Observing my grandmother, I would sometimes wonder why my grandmother in her old age would not just find a simple job instead of having to transport her plants which seemed harder to me. However, I now understand and admire my grandmother for having a natural business mindset which allowed her to make a living in a country filled with a lot of uncertainty.  Thankful for all the hard work that my parents have done to provide for my family and me in the land of the American dream, I now believe I possess that business mindset. Just as I have seen my grandmother and others in my family make their livings throughout the business path, I one day aspire to own my own business so I can hopefully instill the business mindset in the younger generations such as my grandmother did in me.  Lastly, I would like to thank the Beatrice Diaz Memorial Scholarship for this wonderful opportunity that can potentially help me chase my dreams of entrepreneurship.

The sound of loud grunts and slow footsteps are a sign that my dad has arrived from another long day of work. As the only source of income in my family, my dad has worked long hours and without any complaints for as long as I can remember. I go to greet my dad at the entrance door of our trailer home and am instead greeted by his weary eyes and fatigued stance. At this sight; I greet him with a smile, for I know that he is the most hardworking man that I have met in my sixteen years of living. My biggest motivator to be a successful woman; is my parents. Like many other first generation Mexican-Americans, my parents immigrated to Texas for a better quality of life. As a first gen, my parents made sure to inform me of all the struggles that my family has faced along the years so that I could keep in mind to strive for the best decisions and grasp at the opportunities offered to me in this land of opportunities. By observing the sacrifices committed by my mother to ensure the well-being of my brother and I as well as the extreme hard work from my father, it was from an early age that I realized that letting my parents down would never be an option. My parents did not move out of their home country for me to be unmotivated, this being said; for as long as I can remember, I knew that I needed to try my best in everything that I did. Pursuing an education is extremely important to me because I have lived years and years of observing my parents be overlooked due to their lack of an education. One example of this lives in my mind rent free. I vividly remember the day I was over at my friend’s house; whose mom and dad both worked for the town we lived in. My friend and I were having a good time and soon, her mom approached me to greet me. She asked me how I was and quickly asked me who my parents were. As the naive and innocent child I was, I was confused by this question. What did she mean by this? My young self had only ever thought of my parents as simply that. Still confused, I answered “Uhm they’re my parents??” in a confused tone. Hearing that I did not give her an interesting answer like she was searching for, she immediately seemed less interested in me. Despite my young age, this was very evident to me. This moment was when everything finally clicked in my head, and I realized that education creates connections which most adults care most about. This situation is very aggravating for me due to the fact that my parents are constantly overlooked despite being the kindest, most hard-working people that I know. My parents have decided to not change their own life but rather to encourage me to reach an “ideal” life. It is now in my hands to lead my future. It is in my hands to better myself and grasp opportunities. It is in my control to succeed in life no matter the given circumstance because you cannot be stopped by obstacles, instead you have to learn from them and improve. This being stated, education will always play a huge role in my future goals, and I will continue to pursue my education as well as try to find ways to inspire other students of Hispanic descent that “ si se puede”.