I remember the smell of the library. Hardcover books were my favorite, especially the ones filled with bright colors. My mom would take my siblings and I to the library once a week to pick out books for her to read at the dinner table. This started my love for reading, I would wander off to find books of women who dreamed big. Selena Quintanilla, Ameila Earhart, Cleopatra. As I would eat my dinner, I would imagine each one of their lives, and who their biggest supporters were. My mom is my family's biggest supporter in education. She is an ESL teacher, and my father was an immigrant who never graduated from high school. She told me about the odd jobs he always had, and how important going to college was. My mom has always struggled hard to make ends meet, being an educator and a single mom is never easy. So, I knew I needed to get a good education for my family. I saw first-hand how education can change a person's status. My 8th grade school was filled with kids like me, whose parents couldn’t make ends meet. So, when I decided to apply to Saint Ursula, a prestigious all girls high school, all of my peers laughed at me. However, my mom believed in me. When my acceptance letter came with financial and an educational scholarship she was standing there right behind me, proudly smiling. I became the first girl from my 8th grade class to go to Saint Ursula, and now many other girls are following in my footsteps. It was my first step into getting higher education for my family. I also saw how education was able to change my mom’s job status. She would work in the daytime at school, then when she put all of us to bed, she would work at night, taking classes to increase her paychecks. When people would look down on us when they learned I have been to 13 different schools, they just never understood that each move my mom made was for us. Each time she would get a better job, with an increase in pay. Her hard workday and night showed me how important education is. So, when it came to my turn, I joined every club, extra-curricular, and job experience I could to fill out my college application. I am the oldest in my family, so everything I do is so one day I will be able to support my mom the way she has. My college decision was extremely hard for me. All of my family wanted me to go to Ohio State. They were all alumni, and it was the one closest to home. However, I have always been a person who dreams big, so when I said I wanted to go to the University of San Diego, my mom was not surprised. Instead, she was my only supporter. Every time I would break down in tears about the stress of disappointing my family, she would stand beside me, continuously repeating “I support you.” She truly is my biggest supporter in everything. When I attend next fall, I plan to join the honors college, do a work study, join clubs and finish my major in International Relations with a minor in legal studies. I will repay my mom’s support and sacrifice by going to college and helping support her and my younger siblings. I will be the powerful woman in the books she used to read to us at the dinner table.

As a kid, I always thought divorce was bad. It was for the kids whose parents got along, but then all of a sudden they are at moms for the week and dads on the weekend. Those kids never wanted their parents to divorce. All I wanted was for mine to divorce. My stepdad was not my biological father, and he made sure to remind me I was not a part of the family. He was an abusive man, both physically, mentally, and emotionally. When I was 5, I remember waking up in the morning and seeing my mom curled up in a ball on the couch, crying. I had heard the yelling and banging and screaming; it had woken me up and so I realized he had left. That week was the best week of my life. It was just my mom, my sister, my brother and me. We went to the park and played on the playground, watched family movies, and stayed up late making a fort. It was the first time I didn’t have a gut sense of fear in me, I was just happy. When he returned home, everything went back to normal. No more laughing, parks, or movie nights. The sense of fear was back. This cycle of him coming and leaving when he wanted happened for 9 years, and the abuse towards me only grew more as I got older. I used to be jealous of my friends whose parents were divorced or had weekends with their dads. I knew it wasn’t ideal for them, but I couldn’t help it. In the summer of 5th grade, my mom told me we were going to move to Florida, she wanted to see if the warm weather would make my step-father nicer. So we packed up and left my grandparents and moved towards his. For a while, the plan had worked. He was happier when he was around his family. He brought us treats and said he was sorry for the way he had acted before. After a month, the gut sense of fear came back, and the abuse got worse. This time, I had nowhere to go. I couldn’t see my grandparents, I didn’t trust his family and I hadn’t made any friends yet. My mental health declined rapidly, I was so tired of the constant cycle. I was tired of his family, friends, and our neighbors, seeing the abuse and saying nothing. The only happiness I found was in school, so I would stay there as long as possible. I joined the cheer team, got tutoring, and joined clubs- anything I could do to stay out. This cycle happened for the next 3 years. I woke up to fighting at 5 am. I knew the drill; this was normal. I crawled out of bed and kept my hand on my door handle in case I needed to leave quickly to help my mom or put something against my door to barricade it. I heard a loud smack and him walking away to my brother's room to say goodbye before he left. I opened my door and stared at him. “You're a terrible father, and I hope I never see you again.” He grabbed my neck and started choking me. My mom walked in and he stopped and turned away. I took my phone and snapped pictures of my mom's face, from where he hit her, and pictures of my neck too. That was the last time he lived in the house with us. My mom took us back to Ohio, where we stayed until the divorce happened. Since then, I have worked hard in school. I have a 4.29 GPA at the moment. I plan to go to college, and my mental health has recovered. I want to major in International Relations with a minor in business and law. I plan to advocate for and help kids who are living in abusive environments all around the world. I know the helpless feeling, wondering if you will ever get out. I want to be the inspiration for kids like me to know that it will get better. I would say the divorce saved me. Without it I would not be where I am here today. It helped my entire family grow. I realize now, that divorce does not always have to be bad; each family has their reasons. Sometimes, it can be a blessing.

I have been to 13 different schools in 12 years of schooling. This has created a profound change for me. In 8th grade, I went to a low-income school where most of the students lived below the poverty line. My family, being one of them, was getting government food boxes to help us stay afloat. Since my mom is a teacher and my dad was not even a high school graduate, I knew that education would be the key to escaping poverty. Therefore, at the age of 13, I worked hard in school and became one of the top students in my class. I applied to go to Saint Ursula, which is a prestigious catholic school in my area. No one from my 8th grade school had ever attended, but I wanted to reach my dreams. Thankfully enough, a letter came in with an educational and financial scholarship to attend the school. I became the first girl from my impoverished school to attend. Now, many girls are applying and can reach a fuller education. I will always be thankful for that scholarship since it fulfilled my dream that working hard could give me educational opportunities I thought would otherwise be impossible. Now, I am on the same boat again, reaching college to further my education. I am extremely determined to graduate with a major in International relations and a double minor in law and French. I want to become a diplomat and help under-resourced kids like me in other countries. I hope to fight for women and children's rights to go to school, because I know that education is the way to move up from poverty. I plan to create scholarships just like these for students who need them and fight for educational rights for underrepresented/underresourced communities. I understand the constant frustrations of being under-resourced and undervalued. I realize that my educational opportunities are a blessing. I hope this reciprocates my blessing of scholarships to students around the world who I know can be just as smart if they are given the right opportunities. I hope to make no student feel helpless and discouraged.

I am a mixed Mexican American. My father is an immigrant who never graduated from high school. My mom is an ESL teacher, and I have learned from both of them the importance of education. Since my father had very little and my mom works as an educator, I realize that education is power. Therefore, I am applying and wanting to go to college and major in International Relations. I love learning languages, and I want to contribute to our world by making a change. My family and I are in a lot of financial need. My father was deported, and my mom has been a single mother for the majority of her life. It is difficult enough to live off of a teacher's salary; mortgage, water, and grocery bills are struggling to be paid. Going to college is a dream of mine, and that is why I need the money to attend. I have been to 13 different schools, and through them, I have been to low-income schools. In my 8th grade class, there were many students in my same boat. Through my hard work, I was able to get an educational scholarship to Saint Ursula. I was the first girl from my impoverished school to attend. Now, I have helped open the doors for other girls to attend this school. From that scholarship, I was able to understand that working hard through education can be a gateway to get out of poverty. I hope to continue to inspire other people like me by pushing down obstacles.