I come from a very conservative Mexican family. Women must cook, serve, and obey their husbands to qualify as a good person. From a young age I was taught how to cook and clean the house while my brothers and my father were never even allowed to serve their own plates. It’s a problem that most Hispanic or foreign countries face, the idea that women are inferior. I had to constantly prove myself throughout high school in order to show my parents that I was serious about my education. I entered the most rigorous courses and graduated in the top 10 percent in my high school. Only then did my parents allow me to go to college, seeing that I was truly serious about me wanting to continue my education. My main goal is to be a voice for those that are going through the same struggle of trying to break from generational traditions. My parents did not go through the trouble of immigrating to the US only for me to end up as a housewife and pregnant with my second child by the age of 22. That is why I aspire to set up a scholarship fund in the future for students, especially women from Hispanic descent, who are facing the same problems of having to meet a standard. I know that there are many young women that struggle to continue their education due to the lack of support from family and friends. I will want to help those people by continuing my education and getting to a point in my life where I can give back to my community. To get to my goals, I first must graduate from college. By being a model student, I believe I will be able to inspire others to continue going to school. Apart from that I want to become more involved in extracurricular activities. Since I go to a community college there aren’t many clubs or programs to attend but I do intend to become more involved once I transfer to a 4-year university. After college I would want to pair up with non-profit organizations, like HSF, to get my story out. I want to be that positive role model for others to inspire them to keep going. I would like to continue advocating for underrepresented minorities well into the future, even after 20 years from now. Seeing someone you can relate to is very empowering for anybody, regardless of their race or gender.

For most of my life, I lived among Hispanics in a poor neighborhood, most of the residents in my town lived below the poverty line. I lived in bliss for fifteen years of my life, it wasn’t until my sophomore year of high school that I realized the lack of diversity in higher level academics. During my sophomore year I moved from Chicago to Indiana. I felt not only ostracized but not good enough. I was in the top of my classes in Chicago but when I moved to Indiana I felt out of place. Everybody in my classes were white upper-class students that went to the same small private school and have known each other for years. It took months for me to gain my confidence back and even start speaking to my peers. There were multiple times where I did want to drop out of my higher-level classes, and if it were not for the support of my teachers I would have dropped out. Once I got out of my depressed state, I started to become an activist for diversity in higher level classes. I helped by participating in a club called NOBCChE where you bring awareness of the STEM field to minorities. It was a constant struggle to attract new club members because most minorities do not even consider the STEM field as a viable option for their future. For my last two years of high school, I dedicated myself to this club and I am proud of the work I did with the club. It was a great experience and only a taste of what I could do for minorities in the STEM field. I am a very ambitious person by nature, my dad came from nothing and built his own business from the ground up. These influences that I have had around me my whole life is why I want to become the best version of myself. By going to college and becoming the first person in my family to receive a bachelor’s degree I will be closer to achieving my dreams. I want other minorities to be inspired by my achievements, to look at me and realize that they can also achieve their dreams. Not only do I want to inspire everybody, but I also want to inspire Latino women. Coming from a Latino culture is hard, especially with their misogynistic views. I have had plenty of people tell my dad that he is wasting his money by funding my education. That at the end of the day I will settle down and going to college would have been a waste of time and money. I want to prove these people wrong not only for myself but for others that are going through similar situations. In order to break these views, we must encourage people to step up, to achieve what others deem to be impossible and to never give up no matter how hard it gets.

Being a Mexican American student in Indiana is hard. The majority of my life I felt secluded, as if I didn’t belong in my classes because of my skin color. This has always been a problem in the US, feeling as though you are not good enough because of your race. It was during my sophomore year of high school that I started to accept myself, all thanks to an important Mexican figure. Frida Kahlo is an extraordinary painter who was known for her raw depictions of life. As a little girl I remember going to Mexican shops that had Kahlo’s face plastered all over different types of merchandise, bags, shoes, bracelets, earrings, etc. At that time, I didn’t know why she was so famous, but I remember the feeling of pride in my chest whenever I saw her. I had never seen anybody that looked like me on any type of merchandise before. I felt included and once I got to high school all those feelings came back to me. Kahlo did not have an easy life, she was discriminated against not only because of her race but for her gender as well. Yet she preserved and became a renowned artist who represents Mexican culture. Even though she has been deceased for multiple decades her paintings live on and will continue to make an impact. She inspired me in a time of doubt to become who I wanted to be and to never let anybody come in-between myself and my culture.