I have always wondered if I had ever made an impact on someone's life. There was a point where I wondered so much that I started to believe that I had never impacted someone's life as much as I had wanted. Growing up I was bullied, for no apparent reason. I always wondered if it was because of my ethnicity, the color of my skin, or the way my family looked. Frightened by my classmates I refused to make friends and kept myself closed off until I graduated high school. I felt so alone and lost and fell into such a deep hatred for myself. I thought maybe if I changed people would like me, so I became anorexic and put my life at risk because I thought I was not good enough. I became severely depressed and wondered to myself if taking my own life was the only way that I could ever make an impact on people. Slowly, as I began to recover, I realized I had made an impact on the most important people around me. My family and my boyfriend were by my side through it all and I feel like I was able to show them that no matter how difficult life can seem sometimes it is not worth giving up yourself or your health. Communication could have saved me from many months of pain that I experienced both mentally and physically. My career goal is to become a lawyer. This has been my goal since I went into high school and ever since then I have begun working endlessly to achieve that goal. I want to make two major impacts in the life of others when I achieve this goal. My first impact is to show little Latine girls that it is possible to become a lawyer in a field that is so largely inhabited by white men. I was always looking for individuals who looked like me in the field I wanted to go into. I want these girls to feel like they can do it, no matter what society says or thinks. If I was able to do it, they should know they are able to do so as well. The second impact I wish to have is to be able to help individuals feel like their legal struggles are easier to overcome. I am not certain what field of law I want to go into but I know that whatever I do I want to be able to help the less fortunate and people who are struggling to keep themselves afloat.

My journey as a first-generation Hispanic student has been more difficult than expected. What has been the most difficult has been the financial hardship that has arisen from this new chapter of my life. But the turbulence in my financial situation has only made me feel more grateful for my education. Aside from gratefulness, it has made me feel like I need to put all my effort into my classes to take the most advantage of all the money that I was investing into my education. My role models would most definitely be my parents, my parents have shown me the difficulty that people can experience when thrust into a new environment. My parents have always encouraged me to be outgoing in school and do the most I can with the resources that have been presented to me. Seeing how they put their sweat and tears into providing me with an education makes me ambitious to give back to them and the community in which I was raised. The fact that both of my parents are immigrants, and had to go through the process of becoming citizens, has made it clear what my aspirations are. I want to help people like my parents become citizens, and that is why I am on the Pre-law path to becoming an immigration lawyer. On my educational path I fell victim to an eating disorder, due to unforeseen circumstances I fell into the most treacherous time of my life. I had to overcome such obstacles through medical guideship and due to my own will to surpass this situation holding me back. I learned that I am stronger than I imagined myself to be, and I was able to retain my straight As while struggling with this. I really feel like José Prado and my parents are very similar. Both of them want the best for their daughter, regardless of what it takes. They want their daughter to be able to overcome all adversity to obtain an education that will be used to make them happy and provide an educated and compassionate person into the workforce. If I were to establish a scholarship one day, I would, simply because I know how important they are to students like me who are financially struggling to make tuition. The ideal candidate would be a student who has struggled with an eating disorder. I think these students struggle extremely as some disorders fog memory and make it a lot more difficult to focus on school. I want them to be able to have a moment of Wow, despite everything I made it. Education is beyond important, especially in a world of disinformation. Education is the foundation for a successful life. Education helps individuals help others. Education can be used for good or for bad, but it is important to educate why it should be used for the betterment of humanity.

As a first-generation student, it has been incredibly difficult for the new world that I have thrusted myself into. In high school I have heard of the difficulties of a first-generation student but thought to myself, what makes it so hard? After my first year of undergraduate education, I now understand. I have been faced with innumerable challenges that have shaped my view of how much I value my education. The academic struggles have been familiar, as a first-generation student and daughter of two immigrants I have always been independent with my school work. Once I entered high school I realized I could no longer ask for help from my parents because they did not know what I was learning or how to even help me. I expected this in college, everything I seemed to do on my own. My first year especially was difficult because I was not aware of the resources that were offered by my university, such as the writing center which can aid me in some of my assignments. As a first-generation student, I always knew I wanted to make the most of that title. In my year and a half in university, I have received a total of all As in the sixteen classes I have taken so far (one B). I know with the title first generation, I have the responsibility to be able to let the statistics of first-generation students with a 4.0 GPA be greater and show the world that even with less information about college than most people have we can succeed. As a first-generation student, I was not aware of how important social connections could be. I commute an hour and a half to school each day, and after a long day, all I wanted to do was go home. I never interacted with my classmates outside of class as I never seemed to have the time or willpower to travel over an hour for anything other than class. I also had to make sure that I was on my way home before sundown because taking the red line in Chicago could be very dangerous. My parents never explained to me how important it is to my future to be able to make friends and social network. This is something not even my high school prepared me for, they never explained to me how important it is to establish these connections in college because you can take them with you once you enter your career. The financial aspect has been the most difficult. My parents and I had little to no information about loans, aid, or scholarships. It has been a complete struggle trying to pay my tuition every month, as we also struggle to understand how loans work. Everything presented has helped me grow up, I learned that the money I made, and all the hours I worked meant something, they made my education possible. Before, money used to be something dispensable that I could waste on silly superficial items, but now I value that money as it is the thing that will provide me with education now, and when I go into law school.