“Just a trip,” my mom said. If my life could be summed up in just six words, they would be these. At the time, I hadn’t realized that we were here to stay, and that I had to abandon my old life in Venezuela. It was just me and my mom, since my dad had stayed behind, which made supporting ourselves difficult. Moving here, however, gave me hope for a better future, one that I could have never gotten in Venezuela, though that unfortunately came at the cost of my parents’ marriage. Life here was not easy. After living with my aunt for about two months, we eventually had to move out so we wouldn’t be such a financial burden on her family. My mom had to find a job, so she started cleaning houses for a small Hispanic company. She would always tell me how much she hated her job, and that sometimes she would even cry during her shifts. Her work conditions were harsh, and she worked incredibly hard, though despite that, her work was hardly making enough money for us to get by. We had to live in a single bedroom apartment in an unsafe area, and without a car, which meant walking on the side of the road to get anywhere we needed to go. We also lived over an hour away from our family, so it would be too much of an inconvenience to constantly ask them for help. However, we were able to push forward, despite the challenging circumstances. My parents still kept in contact with each other, though my father had always been convinced that we wouldn’t last long on our own. I did not find this out until later, but he apparently told my mom, “You won’t last 3 months”, which could not have been further from the truth. We survived here for 10 whole years, and still counting, but their disagreements and my dad’s inability to do his role as a parent led to my parents divorcing. I was devastated to find out about their divorce, as I had always seen my dad as the fun parent, and he would always put a smile on my face. I kept contact with him over my phone, however, as my high school graduation began approaching, he showed interest in traveling to the US to attend my graduation. And so he came to my graduation. It was nice to see him, but something felt off about seeing him, even though we spent a lot of time together. Having gone through most of my life without him, it was almost hard for me to call him my dad. I used to think that I was being a bad son, but after my parents had yet another argument while he was here, I found out some dark truths about him. My mom showed me some documents that shocked me. A doctor’s letter, showing that my mom had been infected with an STD, after my dad cheated on her with a prostitute. A police report, showing how my dad had received two warnings from the police after mistreating my mother, and that he would be arrested if he received another warning. She also mentioned that he had a terrible gambling addiction, and that while my mom was pregnant, he would go gambling, with his phone turned off so that she couldn’t bother him, causing him to be negligent of her. I was deeply heartbroken to find out all of this, as I remember a lot of great memories with him, like going to parks together or hiking a particular mountain trail in Venezuela. My parents’ divorce really exposed a lot about my family, and even hurt my relations with my dad’s side of the family. Their divorce is probably the reason why I am more comfortable around my friends than with my family, as interactions between me and my friends tend to be less serious. It did teach me persistence, since my mom and I always overcame all the obstacles put in front of us, and it taught me important lessons about parenting and child neglect, which will be useful if I ever have my own family. While a lot of damage has been done, I always strive to be a better person. I find joy in helping others, whether it be tutoring or community service, as helping others or simply making someone smile is a great way to make someone’s day, since you never truly know what someone is going through.

“Just a trip,” my mom said. If my life could be summed up in just six words, they would be these. At the time, I hadn’t realized that we were here to stay, and that I had to abandon my old life in Venezuela. When I was enrolled at school in America, I felt lost, not just because I had no friends, but also because of the language barrier. It was just me and my mom, since my dad had stayed behind, which made supporting ourselves difficult. However, there was a positive aspect of this experience. Being able to live at my aunt Arelina’s house while we settled down showed me what life was like outside of poverty. Back in Venezuela, we often had to wait in long lines just to have a chance at entering a supermarket, and I recall that my mom boiled water weekly, as clean water was a rare luxury. I even remember hearing about a time that an armed person robbed several students on a school bus that went to my school. Moving here gave me hope for a better future, one that I could have never gotten in Venezuela. Adjusting to life here was hard, but part of what made the transition easier was my school district’s band programs. Since I spent so much time around the other band members, I easily met my closest friends through there. Everything was going well, until the pandemic struck. Being an introvert, COVID heightened my social anxiety, and it became hard for me to socialize. Not only that, but I started high school the year after. I never felt so alone, but having stayed in band, the leadership team helped me feel welcome, especially when one of the drum majors sat to eat lunch with me after seeing me by myself. It became such a memorable experience that I wanted to be that person for others, which is why when leadership applications opened my junior year, I immediately signed up to audition, and I got the position. I recall being anxious to teach marching fundamentals, because I always worried that I would mess up badly, but during training, I learned some important lessons. We did an activity where we had to name traits that good leaders possessed, and a lot of great words were said, though it was pointed out that no one had said the word “perfect”. Additionally, they taught us about teaching people equitably over equally, as people learn differently, so you must adapt your teaching to reach everyone. After reminding myself of how scared I was to attend band camp the summer before starting high school, I realized that the incoming freshmen would most likely also be overwhelmed due to the drastic change from concert to marching band, so that helped me relax, and soon, I found myself confidently leading marching instruction in my section. Despite having to spend four hours daily teaching in the Texas summer heat for a few weeks, I started getting used to teaching a group, and I learned many valuable lessons which boosted my confidence in leadership. Getting used to life in another country was difficult, but luckily I was able to get connected with a community that allowed me to make many friends, and I took on a leadership role in our marching band. While I wasn’t perfect, I always took note of things to improve, which helped me improve my pacing to facilitate learning. I hope I can be involved in leadership while in college as I enjoy helping other people learn.

“Just a trip,” my mom said. The three words that changed my life forever. Transitioning my life from Venezuela to the United States meant leaving everything behind, and starting fresh, which presented its own challenges. It was almost nerve-wracking getting around, which made it difficult for me to make friends at school, and caused me to develop some social anxiety. While my situation has drastically improved since moving, I always found my comfort in playing video games, specifically Minecraft. Little did I know at the time that my desire for video games would result in developing a curiosity for coding, which ultimately brought me to want to study engineering. But first, how did I get from playing games to coding? Well, whenever I played Minecraft, I always played on what is known as multiplayer servers, which is essentially how you play with other people. I tended to play on popular servers, which contained several minigames that you could play with others. One day I was on one of these servers, and I thought to myself, “I wonder how difficult it is to make a server”. As a result, I found myself researching how to create a Minecraft server, and eventually found out free ways to host one. Once I got the hang of setting up a server, I wanted to attempt to create my own minigame server. The concept was simple. I wanted to create a server where players would go into rounds and defeat waves of enemies using items with special abilities. I had seen this concept in other games, but never had I seen it recreated in Minecraft the way I had pictured it, so I wanted to try it. I called it “Enemy Rush”. It did not go well. The game had to be manually run, as I didn’t know how to code, so I couldn’t automate everything. The project quickly burned me out, and I quit for several months, until I eventually gained new motivation. I knew there had to be some sort of way to automate things, so I began researching how to do so, which led me to finding how to use a special coding language called “Skript”, a very beginner-friendly language. I began experimenting with it, and did a lot of mini-projects trying to learn how to work this language. Unfortunately, all of them eventually failed. Why? My code was messy due to not following good code practices. However, each failure taught me something new about optimization and patience. One day, I decided to return to my original Enemy Rush idea. This is probably the most excited I’ve ever been about a project. Every time I open a file on this project now, it is so satisfying seeing actually readable code, and putting all the good coding practices into place has made development not only easier, but much more fun. This server is currently still under development, and I can’t wait to see what comes out of it! My passion taught me how powerful curiosity can be in learning, and taught me a lot about coding, team management, and even allowed me to learn new math applications. Realizing what I’m capable of has made me really excited to attend college this upcoming fall. Learning about the aspects of creating a project has made me want to pursue engineering, because as much as I despise having to fix bugs in my code, it is always so satisfying to create something that works, and I want to apply that to my career.

Community service is much more than just helping others, it’s also about personal growth. I first began volunteering at my church, where I helped run the sermon livestream, which involved setting up the camera and broadcasting to social media. After volunteering for a couple of months, however, I saw an opportunity to volunteer for Vacation Bible School, and I decided to sign up to help run the games section. I had so much fun building obstacle courses for the kids to run through, and it was so satisfying seeing them race each other. This experience showed me how fun serving others can be, and I decided to participate in a volunteering fundraiser for my school’s band at Top Dog Fireworks. Here, I worked three different positions during each season: Cashier, Salesperson, and Stocker. Volunteering here helped me hone my communication skills, as I constantly had to speak with customers, and it taught me to have patience, since sometimes customers would take a while to decide between products. Regardless, community service taught me many important life skills that I will be able to apply later in life as I head on to study engineering at Texas A&M University.

“Just a trip,” my mom said. We would return to Venezuela any day now, though I was enjoying spending time with my newly met family members. Little did I realize that we were here to stay, and that I had to abandon my old life. When I was enrolled at school in America, I felt lost, not just because I had no friends, but also because of the language barrier. It was just me and my mom, since my dad had stayed behind, which made supporting ourselves difficult. However, there was a positive from this experience. Being able to live at my aunt Arelina’s house while we settled down showed me what life was like outside of poverty. Back at home, we often had to wait in long lines just to have a chance at entering a supermarket, and I recall that my mom boiled water weekly, as clean water was a rare luxury. I even remember hearing about a time that an armed person robbed several students on a school bus that went to my school. This sudden shift in living conditions gave me hope for a better future, and to this day, it is my motivation for my academic performance. Nearing the end of high school with a 4.25 GPA, having taken many difficult classes, and having achieved nearly 400 volunteering hours, I have been motivated to be successful throughout my educational career and hope to achieve my dreams of studying engineering at Texas A&M University. Taking advanced classes was always more than just boosting my GPA. The classes I took helped me learn more about how the world around us works and explore my curiosity for different topics. AP Computer Science, for example, helped me learn about how software works, and it even inspired me to create little game projects, especially after we recreated one of my favorite childhood videogames, Super Mario Bros. AP Physics C, on the other hand, gave me more insight into how motion works, and helped me understand why objects move downhill, if gravity pulls them straight down. Lastly, Dual Credit Economics helped me learn how economics is not just about money, but about choices, and the opportunity cost behind them. Additionally, my academics often go beyond my classes. Being in Mu Alpha Theta gave me the opportunity to tutor others in math, and nothing is more satisfying than seeing a concept click for someone else. Tutoring others has helped me expand my own knowledge of mathematics, while helping others improve their grades and encouraging them to continue their education. Being so fortunate to receive a proper education in America, I was also motivated to give back to my community. I first began volunteering at church, helping run the livestream. The tasks were simple: set up the camera, start the livestream, and broadcast the service to social media. However, this was just the start, as this service eventually allowed me to branch off into more areas of volunteering at church, like volunteering in Vacation Bible School, where I got to set up games for the kids, and helped run them. Volunteering taught me many important lessons like patience, and helped me improve my confidence in speaking, lessons which I can apply later in college and in a career. Having gotten many opportunities for growth in America, I hope to use my story to inspire the idea that regardless of your background, it is possible to grow to be a scholar, and I hope I’ll have many opportunities in the future to mentor others, as it is one of my favorite hobbies.

Moving to the United States from Venezuela was a major change in my life, which brought forth many obstacles, like the language barrier, and my mom particularly struggled finding a stable job. Year after year, we always had to rent an apartment. I recall walking on the side of the roads to try to reach stores, since we had no reliable transportation, and because of the lack of sidewalks. Always having to live in the cheapest places we could find, sometimes we had to live in shady areas, and my mom worried for our safety. It was also particularly difficult for me to make friends in school, since our housing situation resulted in us moving after each school year, which had a negative impact on my social life. Living like this, however, only motivated me to work harder, to create a better future for me and my family, and ultimately be able to repay my mom for opening so many doors for me while giving up her whole life for me. Having the privilege to receive a proper education in the United States made me realize how fortunate I was, which inspired me to give back to my community. Every week at church, I volunteer in the livestreaming team, where I help set up the livestream camera, push graphics for the online service, edit the service podcast, and public livestreams to social media. After volunteering for a whole year, I gained the opportunity of training new people for the livestreaming team, which helped me hone my leadership skills and my teaching skills. Furthermore, I was invited to help run the games section of Vacation Bible School (VBS), which was a great experience where I worked in a team to set up fun games for the kids. On top of church, I have also taken part in fundraising volunteering for my school’s band program, by volunteering at Top Dog Fireworks, where I got valuable experience as a salesperson and as a cashier, giving me opportunities to interact with strangers, and work on my communication skills. All of my volunteering experience also allowed me to join my school’s 2025 chapter of the National Honor Society, giving me new opportunities to volunteer around my school district. I have approximated that by the end of my senior year, I will have over 500 hours of volunteer work completed. My interactions with other people have not just been limited to volunteer work. I have a deep passion for programming, and have started several passion projects where I coded Minecraft servers, which allowed me to create online communities, with one reaching around 100 members. While I mostly program for fun, being able to create new communities is a fun way to connect with others. Having positively impacted several people who played on my servers, I realized that I wanted the same for my career, and I seek to study Computer Engineering. I seek to explore my interests in game design or potentially artificial intelligence, because I both enjoy creating new communities and interacting with them, but I also believe in the potential of AI to optimize many aspects of society, and wish to contribute to its growth. With all my experiences in volunteering and connecting with online communities, I hope I can contribute to advancements in artificial intelligence, while continuing to make meaningful connections, both in real life and in a digital space.

Moving to the United States from Venezuela was a major change in my life, which brought forth many obstacles, like the language barrier, and my mom particularly struggled finding a stable job. Year after year, we always had to rent an apartment. I recall walking on the side of the roads to try to reach stores, since we had no reliable transportation, and because of the lack of sidewalks. Always having to live in the cheapest places we could find, sometimes we had to live in shady areas, and my mom worried for our safety. It was also particularly difficult for me to make friends in school, since our housing situation resulted in us moving after each school year, which had a negative impact on my social life. Living like this, however, only motivated me to work harder, to create a better future for me and my family, and ultimately be able to repay my mom for opening so many doors for me while giving up her whole life for me. Having the privilege to receive a proper education in the United States made me realize how fortunate I was, which inspired me to give back to my community. Every week at church, I volunteer in the livestreaming team, where I help set up the livestream camera, push graphics for the online service, edit the service podcast, and public livestreams to social media. After volunteering for a whole year, I gained the opportunity of training new people for the livestreaming team, which helped me hone my leadership skills and my teaching skills. Furthermore, I was invited to help run the games section of Vacation Bible School (VBS), which was a great experience where I worked in a team to set up fun games for the kids. On top of church, I have also taken part in fundraising volunteering for my school’s band program, by volunteering at Top Dog Fireworks, where I got valuable experience as a salesperson and as a cashier, giving me opportunities to interact with strangers, and work on my communication skills. All of my volunteering experience also allowed me to join my school’s 2025 chapter of the National Honor Society, giving me new opportunities to volunteer around my school district. I have approximated that by the end of my senior year, I will have over 500 hours of volunteer work completed. My interactions with other people have not just been limited to volunteer work. I have a deep passion for programming, and have started several passion projects where I coded Minecraft servers, which allowed me to create online communities, with one reaching around 100 members. While I mostly program for fun, being able to create new communities is a fun way to connect with others. Having positively impacted several people who played on my servers, I realized that I wanted the same for my career, and I seek to study Computer Engineering. I seek to explore my interests in game design or potentially artificial intelligence, because I both enjoy creating new communities and interacting with them, but I also believe in the potential of AI to optimize many aspects of society, and wish to contribute to its growth. With all my experiences in volunteering and connecting with online communities, I hope I can contribute to advancements in artificial intelligence, while continuing to make meaningful connections, both in real life and in a digital space.

Moving to the United States from Venezuela was a major change in my life, which brought forth many obstacles, like the language barrier, and my mom particularly struggled finding a stable job. Year after year, we always had to rent an apartment. I recall walking on the side of the roads to try to reach stores, since we had no reliable transportation, and because of the lack of sidewalks. Always having to live in the cheapest places we could find, sometimes we had to live in shady areas, and my mom worried for our safety. It was also particularly difficult for me to make friends in school, since our housing situation resulted in us moving after each school year, which had a negative impact on my social life. Living like this, however, only motivated me to work harder, to create a better future for me and my family, and ultimately be able to repay my mom for opening so many doors for me while giving up her whole life for me. Having the privilege to receive a proper education in the United States made me realize how fortunate I was, which inspired me to give back to my community. Every week at church, I volunteer in the livestreaming team, where I help set up the livestream camera, push graphics for the online service, edit the service podcast, and public livestreams to social media. After volunteering for a whole year, I gained the opportunity of training new people for the livestreaming team, which helped me hone my leadership skills and my teaching skills. Furthermore, I was invited to help run the games section of Vacation Bible School (VBS), which was a great experience where I worked in a team to set up fun games for the kids. On top of church, I have also taken part in fundraising volunteering for my school’s band program, by volunteering at Top Dog Fireworks, where I got valuable experience as a salesperson and as a cashier, giving me opportunities to interact with strangers, and work on my communication skills. All of my volunteering experience also allowed me to join my school’s 2025 chapter of the National Honor Society, giving me new opportunities to volunteer around my school district. I have approximated that by the end of my senior year, I will have over 500 hours of volunteer work completed. My interactions with other people have not just been limited to volunteer work. I have a deep passion for programming, and have started several passion projects where I coded Minecraft servers, which allowed me to create online communities, with one reaching around 100 members. While I mostly program for fun, being able to create new communities is a fun way to connect with others. Having positively impacted several people who played on my servers, I realized that I wanted the same for my career, and I seek to study Computer Engineering. I seek to explore my interests in game design or potentially artificial intelligence, because I both enjoy creating new communities and interacting with them, but I also believe in the potential of AI to optimize many aspects of society, and wish to contribute to its growth. With all my experiences in volunteering and connecting with online communities, I hope I can contribute to advancements in artificial intelligence, while continuing to make meaningful connections, both in real life and in a digital space.

To me, success is more than just achieving goals or earning a degree. It is about using what I have learned to make a difference in the lives of others. Growing up, I saw how opportunities could change everything. My family left Venezuela and came to the United States looking for a better future. That experience taught me to appreciate every chance I have and to work hard for the ones I want. I have always been drawn to STEM because it combines creativity and problem-solving. I love the idea of using technology to solve real-world problems and make life easier for others. Whether it is designing tools to help people manage screen time or creating programs that improve accessibility, I want my work to have a purpose beyond myself. Success, for me, is about building something meaningful that can make an impact on the world. This scholarship would be a big step toward that dream. College is expensive, and my family has already made so many sacrifices to give me the chance to succeed. With this scholarship, I could focus more on my education and less on the financial stress that comes with it. Texas A&M or UT Austin are my dream schools because of their amazing engineering programs. Studying at one of these schools would give me the knowledge and opportunities I need to excel. Over the years, I have prepared myself for this path. With a 105.64 weighted GPA, I have worked hard to do my best in every class. Being the first-chair brass player in my school’s wind symphony taught me how to lead and how to work as part of a team. I have also put in almost 300 volunteer hours, helping others and learning how to connect with people from all kinds of backgrounds. These experiences have shaped me into someone who values persistence, collaboration, and service. Even with all my preparation, I know college will be challenging. That is why this scholarship is so important. It would open up opportunities like research, internships, and possibly studying abroad. I want to take full advantage of my time in college to learn as much as I can, not just from classes but also from hands-on experiences. I also hope to continue playing in a college marching band. Music has been a huge part of my life and has taught me discipline and focus. I think these qualities will help me as I work toward a degree in computer science or electrical engineering. More importantly, music has given me a community, and I look forward to finding that in college too. In the future, I see success as building a career where I can use my skills to help others. I want to work on projects that make technology accessible and inclusive so that it benefits everyone, not just a few. Coming from an immigrant family and as a Christian, I believe in lifting others up and using my blessings to create opportunities for others. This scholarship is not just financial help; it is a chance to take my next step toward success. It would let me pursue my education with fewer limitations and allow me to focus fully on my goals. I am excited about the future and ready to work hard to achieve it. For me, success is about learning, growing, and using what I have gained to make a lasting impact.

At first, I thought of math as just another class I had to take, even though I never struggled with it. That perspective changed when I started learning computer science and discovered how math connects to coding. I realized that math has countless incredible applications, and I was amazed by all the possibilities. One of my passion projects is coding a Minecraft server, where I use math concepts like vectors to create cool effects or write equations to calculate how much damage a player should deal to an enemy, factoring in their statistics and abilities. An interesting moment for me was using the sine graph to create a "bobbing" effect for objects in the game. Another reason I love math is because of my current experience in Calculus. The concepts we learn in class are fascinating and applying them to my physics class has made me appreciate physics even more, despite it making some problems significantly more difficult. Seeing real-world applications of derivatives and integrals has been especially exciting and has deepened my love for math. Math is a subject I believe more people should appreciate, so I try to help others reach their potential by offering math tutoring to my peers. Whether it is running an afterschool session or helping a friend prepare for a test, these experiences have shown me that teaching math can be rewarding, not just for myself, but for others. Tutoring has not only allowed me to share my passion but has also improved my communication skills and patience. To me, math is the most fascinating subject because of what it enables you to do. Whether it is creating unique features through code or applying it to other fields, math has shown me its true potential. It is a subject that will always inspire me and play a crucial role in my career goals.