Getting involved in your community is like growing a fruit-bearing tree. By putting in the effort to nurture and grow it, you can reap the benefits down the line. Like most people, I am a part of multiple communities, and I try to participate in them. Most of the work I participated in was through joining my high school's clubs like United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, Gay Straight Alliance, Tri-M Music Honor Society, and the National Honor Society. In my freshman year of high school, I decided to join all of the clubs that had an impact on communities that I was a part of and ones that I cared about. Some of these clubs allowed me to actively participate in aiding my local community and in others, my role was to educate and simplify. Being a part of the National Honor Society introduced me to a copious amount of volunteer opportunities that helped my local community. Living in the hurricane state of Florida meant that there were a lot of things to accomplish after a storm hit. After the storm, I would help clean up the debris and any other obstructions in the area. I also did something similar for the local churches through Metropolitan Ministries. Before or after their church services I, along with some other students, would volunteer to ensure that the building was clean and ready for the next service. To assist the churches more, we would also help clean up their garden, picking any weeds that have grown near the produce and making sure that they were all watered. When I was not volunteering for the National honor society I was helping with my school's Gay Straight Alliance. I would run a stand at school events promoting the club and help educate other students on current events involving the LGBTQ community offering resources where they could get more information. I was successfully able to double the number of members of the club over that year. I was elected as the Vice-President of the club and created social media platforms where members could go if they needed someone to talk to (me or the other club representatives). This helped a lot, especially during the pandemic. With the help of the other leaders, we were able to keep the club running online. We hosted zooms for students doing distance learning where we were all able to play games and interact safely with each other. Putting in the extra effort into things as simple as a school club helped educate members of my community about injustices and encouraged community members to do something about it.

My dream goal in life is to aid my family accomplishing their dreams. I am the first person in my family to go to college and am currently working towards my bachelors degree in computer science to become a software engineer at the University of South Florida. Working hard and being successful in my field will give me the ability to help my siblings in completing their goals by being an example of just how important getting an education is.