My life's journey has been driven by a desire for financial peace from the very beginning. My earliest memories involve being in Venezuela, listening to my parents desperately figure out how they were going to find food and other basic goods. I remember standing in gruelingly long lines, out in the sun, for flour — sometimes it’d almost be our turn, and then they’d run out of stock. Financial peace was so important to my family that they moved us abroad, out of Venezuela and into the United States, to ensure that my future was brighter. Everything that my parents have done to get me where I am is exactly why financial peace is important to me. They’ve poured everything they can into placing me in the right opportunities for an education here at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. For me to establish a career so successful that it provides me with the privilege of financial peace is merely giving back to them, metaphorically and literally; it represents me holding up my end of the deal, and it would allow me to financially support them as they settle into the later stage of their lives. If I lived a life so fortunate and sacred as to not have any financial stressors, that would be one of the very first things I would do: I would financially support my parents so that they can retire immediately — it’s heartbreaking for me to see them working in their old age. But, perhaps contrary to what seems intuitive, I think that without financial stressors, I’d be doing the same things I’m doing, just on a broader and more impactful scale. With financial stressors, I’ve worked with Feeding Tampa Bay to provide the hungry and needy of Tampa with food they might’ve not been able to afford; without financial stressors, I’d likely be working to organize such food pantries everywhere that I can for the Charlotte, NC community, perhaps even being the architect behind the design of volunteer warehouses and other facilities. With financial stressors, I’ve climbed my way up through architecture education, hoping to be accepted soon into UNC Charlotte’s highly competitive Integrated Path to Architectural Licensure Program; without financial stressors, I’d be more focused on education first, workforce second. In this way, financial stressors don’t affect what I’m doing in my journey as much as they affect where I am on my journey. I’d still be headed from Point A to Point B; it’s just that financial peace would put me closer to Point B. And this scholarship, too, would put me closer to Point B. It would lighten the load of tuition as I finish up my Bachelor of Arts in Architecture and hopefully enter Charlotte’s architectural licensure program, which will provide me with the internship experience required to become a registered architect as soon as possible. This scholarship is not just $500. It’s $500 closer to Point B. I’d apply for this scholarship even if it were just one dollar, because that’d be one dollar closer to financial peace. Thank you for your consideration.

Picture me at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where I am studying architecture: you'll see me deeply focused in the design studio, critically evaluating my building design iterations for possible improvements and considerations. The work is creative, yes, but constrained. Now picture me in my free time: you'll see me letting loose by producing aggressively danceable, mashup-based electronic music like the song I've submitted, "don’t u be a meanie .. (DRAMAxDRAMA)". As a member of Generation Z, I've always been exposed to a diversity of media, music included. In my hobby of producing electronic music, I find it important to acknowledge this globalized, digital and diverse nature by creating equally diverse music. “don’t u be a meanie” is my latest effort in this mashup journey. I wanted to mash up various musical elements that seem unrelated: dance beats clashing against breakbeats; the various overstimulating sound effects from videogames, internet memes, and diverse cultures (including “hey” chants taken straight out of the Hispanic urban music I grew up listening to in Venezuela); and, yes, Lil Nas X’s rapping juxtaposed with Charli XCX’s angelic voice, among others. Despite appearing unrelated, all these different elements were carefully chosen in the song, as they are all part of my musical identity as a Gen Z-er. In that sense, my music isn’t just for myself, but for fellow Gen Z-ers to feel seen and ultimately accepted for our weird taste in media. That’s ultimately what I really want to achieve with my song. It isn’t purely about combining the unexpected, but more about unleashing this mad potential to connect my generation. The art of the mashup is incredibly, powerfully capable of achieving this. When we take those recognizable elements that an entire group of people resonate with and organize them all into one melting pot, we make the world better. I tip my hat to Mad Genius for connecting the world through culinary mashups; I tip my hat to fellow Gen Z creative geniuses connecting the world through visual/fashion/literature mashups; and I hope someday, someone else will tip their hat to me for connecting the world through the march of my own mashup drum.

In the world of architecture, learning never ends. Although there’s often an emphasis on the creative aspects of architecture in school, creativity must pair with technical fluency for buildings to be buildable, so beyond our design schoolwork I independently study the “boring” but essential topics in architecture: mass timber products, wall assemblies, structural systems, etc. Architecture is very much an apprenticeship field and closing the practical knowledge gap early will make us better designers of the built environment. As part of my future career in architecture, I hope to emerge as a young designer with the ample technical knowledge required to become a true innovator of construction and manufacturing methods, using each design project as the starting point of endless learning experiences. Besides my own self-studying, UNC Charlotte’s School of Architecture provides its most passionate students with opportunities to make a difference in the field from early on: the university’s Integrated Path to Architectural Licensure program connects students with continuous paid internship opportunities at established architecture firms in North Carolina, as well as funded opportunities to become a licensed architect by taking the Architectural Registration Exam; that's early hands-on experience and accreditation I am more than eager to get. To attain it all while in school is a rare treasure in architecture. As part of reaching my goal of architectural innovation, I intend to be accepted into IPAL this upcoming school year. This will be extremely difficult; only a handful of students are accepted annually. They look for students that make the absolute most out of their architectural projects; I believe I am one of those students. Despite coming from an out-of-state community college, I am one of five transfer students who have successfully transferred to their corresponding year level at UNCC’s 80-student studio, a sheer rarity in architecture school. And I completed my pre-transfer studies with a 3.8 GPA while balancing my architectural coursework with rigorous Honors Program courses for those entire two years; I feel more than ready to balance internships and studying for the ARE. I firmly believe I am capable of picking up what UNC Charlotte is putting down to allow me to reach my career goals. The last piece of the puzzle is paying for this invaluable education, one that I pursue despite the endless financial challenges in front of me. This scholarship is that last puzzle piece; it’s how I’ll be able to focus on making the absolute most out of each architectural design project; it’s how I’ll be able to focus on becoming the strongest IPAL applicant I can be; it’s how I’ll ensure that I deliver groundbreaking innovations to the construction and manufacturing of architecture.