I am Emily Reid-Colorez, a student at Northern Arizona University. I grew up in a single mother household. I am also a Mexican-Japanese-American. My mothers family are from Japan, her parents were born in an interment camp and spent the first few years of their lives there. Because of this, a new value came into our family, which was to do our best to blend in to the American ways. Which, I did, I tried my best, but the color of my skin has alway stopped me. My father's family is from a small town in Mexico, they crossed the boarder right before my dad was born so he could be a United States Citizen. My father was not in my life all too much, but the color of his skin was the only thing to stay with me of him. My mom sent me to a majority white school/neighborhood community. This had their advantages, I stayed out of trouble, kept my head down, and graduated in the top 10% of my class with over 700 students. If my mom were to not have drove over 20 minutes everyday to the schools I went to, I would not be where I am at today. I would probably be working a minimum wage fast food job in North Las Vegas. But I am not. I am in a University working towards receiving my Bachelor's Degree in Secondary Education English. Growing up, my elementary and middle school teachers did not see me for my hard work ethic and intelligence. They saw me for my last name and skin color. In Elementary school I picked up a book from the library to teach me spanish because I wanted to be more connected to mi raiz. In school, I would say a word in English, and in Spanish just to practice. One of my teachers thought that Spanish was spoken at home, so they sent me to an English Language Learners class and essentially put me a grade level behind to "catch up" and learn english. Only English was spoken at home. My mom found out and she marched down to my school, after arguing with my teacher, principal and counselors, they had me take a test to prove I speak and read English perfectly fine. From that test, they found out I was actually a year ahead in reading and writing. Throughout High School, I worked even harder so I can receive scholarships and go to a school that I would be able to afford. I received a few scholarships from other Universities but Northern Arizona University was the cheapest option for me. We always thought (my family and I ) that I would not be able to attend because of financial issues, luckily this year I had just enough money in savings to cover the rest of my tuition. Next year is a different option. Everyday I am in school, I face adversity by being one of the only hispanic mixed kids at school. The majority of our students are caucasian. When I speak spanish with my older cousins or siblings, I get strange looks in public and sometimes even told that "You are in America. Speak English". By facing these different adversities, I overcome them by facing them head on with motive, and personal ethics. I no longer let them get the best of me. By going through these things, I make it my goal to succeed and do the best I can. If I were to give someone else advice, I would say one statement. Prove yourself right.

Reading the biography of this scholarship reminded me of my Grandfather, mi abuelo. He moved to America from a small town in Mexico and joined the Navy once his citizenship was finalized. When I was a little girl, I remember him telling me to work hard in school and to prove those who thought little of our people wrong. I grew up in a low income, single mother house. My mom, like my grandfather, believed that education was the utmost important aspect in our lives because being filled with knowledge is always more important than being ignorant and having as little knowledge that can be obtained. Every day, my mom would drive over twenty minutes to drive me to a school on the better part of town in LV,NV (Centennial Hills) so I wouldn't be trapped in a school filled with students who have falling behind since the first grade. By doing this, I was able to succeed and push myself further in a school environment. Many of the students in my schools were able to afford out of school tutors and Kumon classes, but I was not. So I had to make due with what I was given and uphold values that have been passed down through generations of my family members. By the end of my High School career, I took 7 A.P classes, 12 Honors classes, participated in a CTE program called Teaching and Training for 3 years, and 2 semesters of EDU. Along with those courses, I was on the bowling team for 3 years. I also was in Family Career Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) for three years as well. All of these have impacted me immensely because they made me understand the importance of multitasking and keeping my grades up at the same time. My current plans for the future is to obtain at least a bachelor's degree (until I can afford to go back to school for my master's degree), and become a teacher. Once I am settled into the school that I am teaching in and have an understanding of the atmosphere that my students are in, I want to be able to find different ways to help them. I have researched community gardens for a past essay and realized that they are not extremely difficult to set up. I want my community to have access to healthy food, and food in general. So one of my goals is to either set up a community garden within the school that I am teaching in for the students and their families or a community garden near the school. So to sum my plans for my future up, is essentially one single statement, that is to better the community I am in and help improve the students lives that are within that community as they are the future. To circle back to my financial circumstances, I am in major need of money for school. As mentioned above, my mom receives very little help from my biological father and from the state, meaning occasionally twenty dollars here and there from my father and just enough money from the state to afford food on our table. My mom does have a job as a cleaner but she does not make enough money to help pay for my school, she barely makes enough just to take care of her and my little sister. Which is why I need the money, no matter how small the amount is. By receiving this scholarship, I will be able to afford part of the tuition that I owe for next semester.

Like Mr.Lowe, I believe having an understanding of history is extremely important for the students today. If we were to look back at history from centuries ago and compare it to the history that is being created today, we can see that there are many connections between the two and how history constantly repeats itself. When I began to grasp this concept and understanding of History, I decided I wanted to focus on creating a better future as not all historical events should not repeat itself. I am currently a student at Northern Arizona University studying to become a teacher. I am majoring in English and minoring in History and Ethnic Studies, in hopes that this will help me succeed my life goal and purpose. To not only better my community but also teach the youth knowledge about the past. My favorite history course was taken my junior year of High School, A.P U.S History. In this class I gained a deeper understanding of United States History. The information that I learned during this class helped me, personally, become a better advocate for not only myself, but everyone that is around me. I was born in Milwaukee and was moved to Las Vegas at the age of 3, fleeing the gang life that my family was in. Escaping to Las Vegas, my mom became a single mother, which forced us into living in an extremely low income neighborhood which was no better than the neighborhood that we lived in back in Milwaukee. Because of the trials that came with living in the worst part of town, I began to understand the difficulties that many families go through. One neighborhood that I lived in was a horrible place for children. There were not only many shootings but the lowest people under the poverty line lived there. Finding jackets for people was scarce. At age 8, I received a brand new jacket from one of my mom's friends as a birthday present because she was not able to buy one for me. I walked out extremely excited with my new big purple puffy jacket during the cold months. My friends came out to play that day wearing their old jackets that were two sizes too small. That day I ran inside asking my mom if we can set up a blanket and jacket drive for the other kids, families, and homeless people in our community. It has been 11 years now and I continuously hold this blanket drive. When I think about history, I think about events that perfectly showcase modern day issues. For example, the Great Depression, multiple families living in a small one bedroom apartment, people with no warm clothes for the winter, and so on. By teaching important, significant events, like the Great Depression, students can learn from the past to better the future. They are given the opportunity to look around at their community and see if their are any similarities and/or differences. With thus being said, I personally believe that by understanding and knowing Historical events, communities are able find ways to make changes or help prevent horrific historical events from occurring again.

When asked why I believe that education and mentoring of the youth are important, my answer is simple. They are important because they are the future. As shown throughout history, having an education and a mentor is very important to have a thriving society. As human beings and citizens of America, we want leaders that are able to tell us the climate issues that are occurring, leaders that listen to us, leaders who can talk and teach us about every issue that is occurring and how we can fix it together as a group. In order to have those leaders, we need to build them first by instilling the knowledge that not everyone can easily obtain. Mentoring is a major component of creating a better future. For example, a Wordsworth would have an apprentice, in modern times they're called interns. Without the mentors and the people who get mentored, skills like talking to big crowds of people head on get lost as less and less people speak publicly. Education is very important for youth to have. To have a set field, they need to have some sort of education. By having a strong support system in their learning, youth are able to take part in the hard work that is put into our society today. If we continuously educated youth about the hardships that everyone goes through, the truth of what goes on in other countries and our countries, along with the basic knowledge of reading and multiplying, we will be giving youth endless possibilities on how they want to contribute to society. Giving youth an education is critical to their future. By having an education, they can choose where their future is and what they will do with that future of theirs. In my personal opinion, mentoring falls hand in hand with education. We need to teach youth the skills that are passed down through generations. Yes YouTube exists, but there's something different when it's person to person teaching. A history of everything is passed down from one person to another. By mentoring youth, you're giving them an experience not everyone can receive. Youth learn from the mentor all while the mentor learns from the youth. Through this knowledge is being passed back and forth. When America was first going through stages of creating the constitution, founding fathers found it important that there was education for most, as they found it important to run the country. Although education was given to those who were wealthy, and men, mentorships were given to just about everyone. By going through mentorships, youth learned a lot more than what was taught in schools. Therefore, education and mentoring the youth is a crucial aspect in everyone's lives.