I am drawn to the study and practice of law by the opportunity to transform lives. The hand I play in changing the law through my practice is grand in scope, but ultimately the less personal method by which I will transform people’s lives. My primary interest and means of transformation is the relationship between the lawyer and the client. I will treat it like the relationship between the Marine Officer and the Enlisted Marine, which I fulfill today. My first professional draw was teaching high school –James Garcia at University High in Irvine, California built confidence and skills in me throughout my sophomore year. Namely, he installed proficiencies in reading, writing, rhetoric and speaking, which I followed as specializations through high school, sharing them with my peers to build in them like he built in me. He set an example. I followed it. He transformed me. Consequently, I pursued an English degree like his. But my professors at UCLA neutralized the aim to pursue education professionally before September 2022 ended. Their grievances regarding pay, interdepartmental politics, and academia’s radical spirit repelled me into uncertainty. The desire to transform people remained despite it. So, when Captain Dylan Zook (USMC) invited me to undergo a radical transformation into a transformer of people, I accepted. I found under Captain Zook’s command at Los Angeles’ Officer Selection Office a treasured pool of Marine Officer Candidates. They emulated with one another and with the Marines on staff a dynamic of education and transformation. The experienced candidates trained new candidates for Officer Candidate School: the DoD’s most difficult entry training. Captain Zook and Captain Nicole San Filippo, who commanded the office when Captain Zook joined Special Operations, sent me to muddy, moggy, melting Quantico, Virginia in July 2023 for PLC Juniors. That crucible changed me into a warfighter. I returned to the office with the relevant knowledge, experience, and desire to train candidates. Captain San Fillipo sent me again for PLC Seniors in July 2024. That forge transformed me into an Officer of United States Marines, tasked to fulfill General Lejeune’s doctrine from MCO 29: Officers and enlisted relations should not be superior/inferior, but teacher and scholar or father and son, insofar that officers are responsible for their Marines’ discipline and training. This is vital. So many Marines are under 21 . . . the formative period of their lives. Officers owe them, their parents, and America, to return them to society far better physically, mentally, and morally than when they enlisted. That is the dynamic the candidates emulated but played to fruition. As an officer volunteering from 5:30AM until I depart to my 1L studies at Pepperdine University, I transform my candidates by executing General Lejeune’s instructions inside the office. As a Judge Advocate, I will transform the Corps by the judgments I affect. But I am more interested in honoring General Lejeune’s order by transforming my Marines who I represent, leading them through the fiercest trials of their lives.

My Father modeled public service when he prioritized directly helping people over professional development. A CEO, polyglot, translator and international publisher used his languages to serve California as the pastor of a Spanish-speaking congregation, ministering to the physical and spiritual needs of the diverse Hispanic and Latino communities across Orange County and Los Angeles. He sacrificed money. He gained service. He took me along for the adventure. He offered me, at age 10, the opportunity to serve The Lord. I led the worship team for a decade. We opened our doors to homeless communities across Orange County on Holidays, offering warm food, live music, network with us and one another, fresh clothes, supplies, medical attention, and powerful prayer. Some in that packed hall took turkey, a blanket, and left. That was good. More experienced transformation through service. That was great. I came to love service – to love transforming people. Serving transformed me like service transformed them. We took our service to Mexico, where we repeatedly and enthusiastically served an orphanage. God made me a servant. The church shutdown in January 2021 due to pandemic-related troubles. After solemnly e-mailing our congregants, my father retired from pastoring. He directed more time and energy to my mother, who was healing from war against thyroid cancer. He continued public service professionally, as a Community Spanish Professor. Beginning college, I found no outlet. That church, where I served half my life, ended. I became a servant with nobody to serve – unfulfilled. A door opened. A call to serve sounded within. I walked through. I dedicated myself amidst my undergraduate studies to train my body, mind, and spirit to attend United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School (OCS). I was trained across two six week increments in the Summers of 2023 and 2024 in Quantico, Virginia. The staff screened and evaluated for the leadership and character to lead Marines amidst warlike malnourishment, exhaustion, and stress. They found me above standards. Now, as Lieutenant, I serve the L.A. public as an unpaid volunteer instructor at the USMC Officer Selection Office at 5:45AM on Tuesdays and Thursdays before school. My unique experience, fitness, rank, and motivation all orient me to prepare candidates’ bodies, minds, and spirits to attend OCS before leading Marines. I proudly trade my mornings before school to develop leaders among LA’s youth. My example and service make my candidates better officers when they graduate OCS. As better officers, they develop, by example and service, better Marines, elevating the Corps. I easily exchange comfort for an elevated Corps. I committed my four years following law school, by PLC-LAW contract, to public legal service as a Marine Judge Advocate. I am more than interested. I pursue this public service legal career with joy, because my Marines’ lives will transform by my service. Through this service, I will exercise the honor and privilege to lead both my Corps by defending its fidelity from tarnish, but also my Marines by transforming them during their greatest trials.

My Father modeled public service when he prioritized directly helping people over professional development. A CEO, polyglot, translator and international publisher used his languages to serve California as the pastor of a Spanish-speaking congregation, ministering to the physical and spiritual needs of the diverse Hispanic and Latino communities across Orange County and Los Angeles. He sacrificed money. He gained service. He took me along for the adventure. He offered me, at age 10, the opportunity to serve The Lord and His Church. I volunteered to prepare and maintain the worship center, early every Sunday morning. I led the worship team for a decade. We opened our doors to homeless communities across Orange County on the Holidays, giving them warm food, live music, network with us and one another, fresh clothes or supplies, medical attention, and powerful prayer. Some people took the turkey, a blanket, and left. That was good. Still more experienced transformation through service. That was great. I came to love service – to love transforming people. Serving transformed me like being served transformed them. We took our service to Mexico, where we conducted even more enthusiastic service for an orphanage on several occasions. God made me a servant. The church closed its doors in January 2021 due to pandemic-related troubles. After sending a solemn e-mail to our consistent congregants, my father retired from pastoring. He directed more time and energy to my mother, who was recovering from war against thyroid cancer. He continued public service professionally, as a Community College Spanish Professor. I had no outlet when college began. That church, where I had served half my life, was done. I became a servant with nobody to serve – unfulfilled. Another door opened. A call to serve sounded within. I walked through. I dedicated myself amidst my undergraduate studies to train my body, mind, and spirit to attend United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School (OCS). I was trained across two six week increments in the Summers of 2023 and 2024 at Marine Corps Base Quantico. The staff screened and evaluated for the leadership and character necessary to lead Marines amidst warlike conditions: malnourishment, exhaustion, and stress. They found me above standards. At present, as a 2nd Lieutenant of Marines, I serve the Los Angeles public as an unpaid volunteer instructor at USMC Officer Selection Office before 6AM on Tuesdays and Thursdays every week. I am uniquely oriented by my experience, fitness, rank, and motivation, to train candidates’ bodies, minds, and spirits to attend OCS themselves before they lead Marines. I proudly trade my mornings before my law classes towards developing leaders among LA’s youth. My example and service will make my candidates into better officers when they graduate OCS. As better officers, they will develop, by their example and service, better Marines, who will elevate the Corps. My comfort is an easy exchange for an elevated Corps. I committed my four years following law school, by my PLC-LAW contract, to performing public legal service as a Marine Judge Advocate. I am more than interested. I will pursue this public service legal career with a joy to serve, because the lives of my Marines will transform by my service. This service is grounded in the fidelity that sustained the Corps from its conception in November 1775 to the present. It weighs greater than gold. Through my public legal service, I will exercise the honor and privilege to lead both my Corps by defending its fidelity from scenarios which would tarnish it, but also my Marines by transforming them through service, during the most trying battles of their lives.

I demonstrate strong leadership and communication skills in my everyday routine with regard to my volunteering at USMC Officer Selection Office Los Angeles. I arrive before 6AM at 1069 Broxton Avenue in Los Angeles to train Marine Officer Candidates before they ship to Officer Candidate School. I am uniquely qualified by my experience as a successful candidate, and my rank as 2nd Lieutenant to lead this group. I teach them in matters physical, academic, and moral, which are investments in their success and leadership at more than Officer Candidate School. As they become Marine Officers, my investment goes on to benefit the Corps at large, which benefits from more holistically fit officers like the ones I train. I demonstrate resilience in my physical fitness. Over the last four weeks, and perpetuating until the end of November, I exercise five times a week and maintain a calorie deficit. I began this routine weighing 175 pounds at 5"8 and able to conduct a 290/300 PFT four weeks ago. My peers insist that these are good numbers; however, I am determined to set an example that is great. I now weigh 171 pounds and conducted a 296 PFT last week. In November I forecast to weigh 162 pounds and to be fit to perform a 300 PFT. Not only will I be more fit, but I will wear our uniforms more sharply. This will set a finer example for my Marines and my candidates to follow. Ultimately, this example will project forward into a more fit Corps as my followers replicate my example. Their future followers will emulate their example and theirs after them, and so forth until so many more Marines emulate the highest fitness standards. I demonstrate Unselfishness in that same volunteering. Other Marines are paid to fulfill these PTAD responsibilities. My status as a law student prohibits me from receiving any pay. Accordingly, I am not obligated to train and develop these candidates into more successful future Marines. But, I do it anyway for several hours every week, adjacent to my law school responsibilities, because my attention, energy, and sleep are worth trading away for a better cohort of Marines. I demonstrate Focus and determination everyday at Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law. Beyond a full time load, the first year of Law School is the most critical and difficult year, not only because the systems and signals that characterize all law classes are new to first year students, but also because success this year determines access to future opportunities that snowball into success across 2L and 3L. Those opportunities are otherwise inaccessible without success this year. These include law review, prestigious internships, and mock or moot trial competitions, all of which I pursue. My Strong work ethic is evident in my negotiation of my volunteer responsibilities and my full time legal responsibilities. I am pursuing this Juris Doctorate to lead Marines in a fashion that is sincerely needed but rarely pursued among Marines. I could abandon law school and immediately lead Marines as a ground officer, given my B.A. from UCLA. I would enjoy that. But, there are less than 600 Marine Judge Advocates serving the 180,000 Marines on duty at the time I write this, and I know I can be a strong lawyer. So, I will meet this desperate need. That is why I am pursuing this degree. Leadership is setting the example: an example that invites others to emulate it, and that when others emulate it, completes missions or improves lives.

I am drawn to the study and practice of law by the opportunity to transform lives. The hand I play in changing the law through my practice is grand in scope, but ultimately the less personal method by which I will transform people’s lives. My primary interest and means of transformation is the relationship between the lawyer and the client. I will treat it like the relationship between the Marine Officer and the Enlisted Marine, which I fulfill today. My first professional draw was teaching high school –James Garcia at University High in Irvine, California built confidence and skills in me throughout my sophomore year. Namely, he installed proficiencies in reading, writing, rhetoric and speaking, which I followed as specializations through high school, sharing them with my peers to build in them like he built in me. He set an example. I followed it. He transformed me. Consequently, I pursued an English degree like his. But my professors at UCLA neutralized the aim to pursue education professionally before September 2022 ended. Their grievances regarding pay, interdepartmental politics, and academia’s radical spirit repelled me into uncertainty. The desire to transform people remained despite it. So, when Captain Dylan Zook (USMC) invited me to undergo a radical transformation into a transformer of people, I accepted. I found under Captain Zook’s command at Los Angeles’ Officer Selection Office a treasured pool of Marine Officer Candidates. They emulated with one another and with the Marines on staff a dynamic of education and transformation. The experienced candidates trained new candidates for Officer Candidate School: the DoD’s most difficult entry training. Captain Zook and Captain Nicole San Filippo, who commanded the office when Captain Zook joined Special Operations, sent me to muddy, moggy, melting Quantico, Virginia in July 2023 for PLC Juniors. That crucible changed me into a warfighter. I returned to the office with the relevant knowledge, experience, and desire to train candidates. Captain San Fillipo sent me again for PLC Seniors in July 2024. That forge transformed me into an Officer of United States Marines, tasked to fulfill General Lejeune’s doctrine from MCO 29: Officers and enlisted relations should not be superior/inferior, but teacher and scholar or father and son, insofar that officers are responsible for their Marines’ discipline and training. This is vital. So many Marines are under 21 . . . the formative period of their lives. Officers owe them, their parents, and America, to return them to society far better physically, mentally, and morally than when they enlisted. That is the dynamic the candidates had emulated but played to fruition. As an officer volunteering from 5:30AM until I depart to my 1L studies at Pepperdine University, I transform my candidates by executing General Lejeune’s instructions inside the office. As a Judge Advocate, I will transform the Corps by the judgments I affect. But I am more interested in honoring General Lejeune’s order by transforming the lives of my Marines who I represent, leading them through the fiercest trials of their lives.

I am drawn to the study and practice of law by the opportunity to transform lives. The hand I play in changing the law through my practice is grand in scope, but ultimately the less personal method by which I will transform people’s lives. My primary interest and means of transformation is the relationship between the lawyer and the client. I will treat it like the relationship between the Marine Officer and the Enlisted Marine, which I fulfill today. My first professional draw was teaching high school –James Garcia at University High in Irvine, California built confidence and skills in me throughout my sophomore year. Namely, he installed proficiencies in reading, writing, rhetoric and speaking, which I followed as specializations through high school, sharing them with my peers to build in them like he built in me. He set an example. I followed it. He transformed me. Consequently, I pursued an English degree like his. But my professors at UCLA neutralized the aim to pursue education professionally before September 2022 ended. Their grievances regarding pay, interdepartmental politics, and academia’s radical spirit repelled me into uncertainty. The desire to transform people remained despite it. So, when Captain Dylan Zook (USMC) invited me to undergo a radical transformation into a transformer of people, I accepted. I found under Captain Zook’s command at Los Angeles’ Officer Selection Office a treasured pool of Marine Officer Candidates. They emulated with one another and with the Marines on staff a dynamic of education and transformation. The experienced candidates trained new candidates for Officer Candidate School: the DoD’s most difficult entry training. Captain Zook and Captain Nicole San Filippo, who commanded the office when Captain Zook joined Special Operations, sent me to muddy, moggy, melting Quantico, Virginia in July 2023 for PLC Juniors. That crucible changed me into a warfighter. I returned to the office with the relevant knowledge, experience, and desire to train candidates. Captain San Fillipo sent me again for PLC Seniors in July 2024. That forge transformed me into an Officer of United States Marines, tasked to fulfill General Lejeune’s doctrine from MCO 29: Officers and enlisted relations should not be superior/inferior, but teacher and scholar or father and son, insofar that officers are responsible for their Marines’ discipline and training. This is vital. So many Marines are under 21 . . . the formative period of their lives. Officers owe them, their parents, and America, to return them to society far better physically, mentally, and morally than when they enlisted. That is the dynamic the candidates emulated but played to fruition. As an officer volunteering from 5:30AM until I depart to my 1L studies at Pepperdine University, I transform my candidates by executing General Lejeune’s instructions inside the office. As a Judge Advocate, I will transform the Corps by the judgments I affect. But I am more interested in honoring General Lejeune’s order by transforming my Marines who I represent, leading them through the fiercest trials of their lives.

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is important to me as a law student because a healthy lifestyle correlates with better performance in significant areas. Namely, focusing on my health by eating clean, improving my fitness, and sleeping sufficiently every night improves my academic performance, stress management, and overall well-being. I have another and more personal answer to both prompted questions though. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is important to me as a law student, because I am also an officer of United States Marines. While I navigate my 1L studies, I volunteer from 5:30AM until 8:00AM at the Officer Selection Office located on Broxton Avenue in Westwood. There, I train candidates for success at Officer Candidate School in Quantico, Virginia, where they transform into fellow Officers of United States Marines, or fail. That transformation is more than challenging - it is the most difficult entry training the Department of Defense offers. Approximately 30% of all candidates from across the country who arrive at Officer Candidate School fail to graduate. No candidate can complete OCS while deficient in either academic performance, stress management, or overall well being, even though the program deliberately starves candidates of each. In my two successful training increments there, I have known candidates who failed because they lacked any one of the three. Candidate Reeves was ejected when his overall well-being fell in quality for too long. Candidate Sampson was ejected for poor academic performance. Candidate Westby was kicked out within a week of graduation because she failed to manage her stress, resulting in a mental breakdown during which she assaulted a fellow candidate. Accordingly, I train my candidates in physical fitness, culture and history, drill and combat skills, and leadership. The bedrock of that leadership is leading by example. As an officer of United States Marines, I set the example for my candidates, as I will set for my Marines when I begin active duty after completing my legal studies. I teach my candidates to manage their own health or to protect themselves from their inevitable encounters with poor sleep, a stressful environment designed to emulate war-conditions, afflictions against their health, and malnutrition. However, for my teachings to work, I must lead by example. As an officer of United States Marines, I maintain a healthy lifestyle so that my candidates will, improving their performance and holistic well-being. Someday, when they assume command of candidates, or Marines when they begin active duty, they will emulate my example, thus setting a healthy example for their own men and women. Because a healthy example spreads from the top down, I must maintain a healthy lifestyle contemporaneous to meeting the many, and often competing, expectations on me as an officer and as a law student. By virtue of my command, I can improve the well-being and performance of much of the Marine Corps by that example.