I would like to start by sharing some of the most important sayings that my family has shared with me, “la educacion nadie te la puede quitar”, “tienes que hecharle ganas pare ser alguien en la vida”. These words have been engraved in my memory since elementary, so I have done my own efforts to maintain my grades as high as possible. In freshman year, I remember a classmate in Algebra I asked me why I got high grades, “do your parents want you to or something”. At the time my answer was vague and a simple “no”. His question has followed me all the way until senior year and sometimes I find myself answering for myself. What my answer should have been was “I do it for myself because I know what is good for my future and because I want to make my family proud so that we don’t get looked down on”. My parents don’t really look at my grades, they are not the type to praise an A with a present, however, I know that they want the best for me and that they trust me with my own education since I know what I need to get done and have not once lacked academically. As someone from a Hispanic background, I know that succeeding will make my family proud and reassured that all their hard work as immigrants paid off. I have my goals, values, and motivations clear and always present in my mind. Since I already stated some of my values, my background and my community, I will now talk about my interests, nursing. Ever since I was little, I always enjoyed going to hospitals, even though I was only there for my mom’s pregnancies, it was like the place called me and I always enjoyed trying to find my way around the hospital and reading the section labels. I want to be in a place where people are being helped and being pieced together like a puzzle so that they can heal, while also knowing that I was essential in their process. I want to improve lives and give smiles with attentive care to those who desperately need it. I believe that taking upon this career will allow me to contribute greatly to the bettering of society as I can serve as a support system for others who most need it and be their source of happiness and energy as they go through their process of recuperation in whatever form it may be.

The future is still undecided, but I am very certain about the goals that I have and the way that I want to achieve them. I have goals of becoming a nurse and I have planned that way through high school, since I have maintained a high GPA and grades to become a strong candidate for colleges and universities. Now, for life after high school, I will achieve the goal of my dream career by choosing to attend a school strong in the nursing field. I also want to travel and help support my family, I hope to be able to give them the tiniest joys of life, which I was never able to receive due to my family’s financial situation. Since my dad is the only one employed to sustain a family of seven and his paycheck varies on the number of hours he puts in, the financial burden of college tuition will be present this year and threaten my accessibility to the education I desire. To begin with, financial burdens have been constantly present in my life throughout high school, however, I was diligent enough to move past them and not let them affect me. For example, during my sophomore year of high school, having to be online brought me great distress since the availability of devices and transportation threatened my academic performance. During online classes, four children needed to connect in the morning for their classes but initially only having two electronic devices to virtually attend class. I was absent for a week and a half of my online classes due to the cell phones being given to ensure my younger siblings did not fall behind in their academics. I was not careless enough to ignore the recorded class lessons, notes, and homework for each of the days I missed. Therefore, as soon as my sisters finished class, I would take the cellphone, watch the lesson, complete the notes and even exams at midnight to ensure that my grades would not be affected by my lack of resources. Another time was when I did not have a ride to get to an AP test near the end of the semester, so I took a Metro to school and was barely on time. Therefore, I believe that if I were to encounter problems like these during college, I would definitely move past them. Ultimately, I do not want success, I need it. This scholarship would mean a bridge to education, one step closer to success, the stair that I needed in my path. Whatever little amount of help that I receive will be a little grain of sand to help me complete my dreams of being a nurse, traveling, and making people smile and heal. As my parents always told me, “la educacion nadie te la puede quitar” (no one can take away your education), I would appreciate those who contribute to my learning and untouchable knowledge for me to achieve goals and dreams, since they help others continue to dream.

Leadership, to me, means being someone reliable, an example, a role model and a dependable person. In September 2019, I became a freshman in a leadership role when family circumstances forced my older sister and me to take care of my younger siblings while my mom was staying in the hospital due for childbirth. Being the second oldest sister immediately gave me and my elder sister the role of overseeing my two younger sisters who were both in elementary at the time while the two of us were in high school. Although my grandma was staying with us, we didn’t want to rely on her and since she was elderly it would have been troubling for her to take care of four girls. Some of the tasks that I had to take upon were cooking after school, helping my siblings with their homework, getting them to shower, and washing our pair of socks by hand after having used them for the day. I did all this while also keeping track of my academics since I had just entered high school. My eldest sister was in her junior year, and I knew that she had more things to worry about since she was getting ready for her SAT and taking care of her GPA, which was why I would do most of my schoolwork during lunch or finish it during class so that in the afternoon I would just have time to dedicate to my siblings. When my mom arrived with my baby brother, she was satisfied with our dependability and proud. This might seem like a regular personal event that happens commonly but for me, it demonstrated that the little things could shape you the most. I feel like this situation allowed me to be more mentally prepared, organized, and diligent. I believe that my mom's delivery of my brother has prepared me since freshman year to be able to withstand the busyness and stress that can come from being in college by learning how to adapt to the circumstances. Even though I sometimes had to endure the stress of being full of duties, I greatly value the leadership role that was given to me by my family because it meant the trust and responsibility that my father and mother had given to me. Lastly, I am truly interested in this scholarship because I believe that every leadership role taken upon by another person has a huge influence in the life of others and oneself since it makes us a role model and allows us to learn and improve in being more independent while also working together with others to reach a common goal. If I become a recipient of this scholarship, this would allow me to finance my college education and pursue my desired major in nursing because I want to continue to treat others with a sense of leadership like I once did with my siblings and help patients heal with all the possible care that I can give.

I am a struggler, I cry, I become thoughtful and in the saddest scenarios, I sometimes get thoughts of what it would be like if I just wasn’t here anymore. I consider myself a strong human being who has been able to endure some of the intensified basic pain that others might also go through. However, I do not have a mental illness, I know that it is just me having mental breakdowns when I’m at a weak point and others just keep adding more pain and judgments to my persona. The reason why I am aware that taking care of myself is important but not as severe as other’s situations are because I have seen one of my close family members change completely due to a mental illness. My aunt, also my godmother from my first communion, fell victim to a mental illness. She has gone undiagnosed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic but shows signs of schizophrenia. She speaks to herself, talks nonsense, doesn’t want to go outside, and demonstrates no signs of motivation. Everything began in the summer of 2020, one day my aunt told my mom that she met someone on Facebook, that she had talked to him and was going to marry him. My mom was shocked because she didn’t know my aunt was talking to someone but was also excited that she was finally going to have a chance to build her own family after having to also tend to her younger siblings, my other aunt and uncle. However, the morning after she told us that she was going to get married and that her fiancé was coming to meet us, she mentioned that she saw the figure of God in the sky. We are religious and know that clouds sometimes take shape, but no one saw anything. My mom called my uncle and told him that Vero, had met a guy and was going to meet him. All of a sudden, my aunt began to cry in a way that I had never heard before, my uncle hugged her, and she started saying that she had gotten married and that god was good. Then, my uncle came out of the room and began to cry, my sisters, my mom and I, did as well. When we checked Vero’s phone, we were perplexed, the guy she said she had gotten married to, had never accepted her friend request. Nothing she had said about him was true. She had just invented or imagined a whole marriage with someone she had never interacted with. Now, it has been two years and my aunt is still the same. I would say that there has been small progress since she doesn’t get radical episodes of screaming, crying and waking up in the middle of the night as she did in the beginning. However, she still murmurs to herself and has a different look in her eyes. The part that bothers me the most is that my grandma said that she just wants to leave her like that. Selfish. Ignorant. Cruel. That’s what I thought when I heard my grandma’s decision. She is old, has lived her life and will eventually leave this world and then who. Who will take care of my aunt? I plan to major in nursing and convey to others that just like their physical health matters, their mental health also matters. This scholarship will allow me to finance my career and facilitate my advocacy for attention to mental health and the importance of getting diagnosed for people to live comfortable and independent lives.

I am a struggler, I cry, I become thoughtful and in the saddest scenarios, I sometimes get thoughts of what it would be like if I just wasn’t here anymore. I consider myself a strong human being who has been able to endure some of the intensified basic pain that others might also go through. However, I do not have a mental illness, I know that it is just me having mental breakdowns when I’m in a weak point and others just keep adding more pain and judgements to my persona. The reason why I am aware that taking care of myself is important but not as severe as other’s situations is because I have seen one of my close family members change completely due to a mental illness. My aunt, also my godmother from my first communion, fell victim to a mental illness. She has gone undiagnosed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic but shows signs of schizophrenia. She speaks to herself, talks nonsense, doesn’t want to go outside, and demonstrates no signs motivation. Everything began in the summer of 2020, one day my aunt told my mom that she had met a guy on Facebook, that she had talked to him and was going to marry him. My mom was shocked because she didn’t know my aunt was talking to someone but was also excited that she was finally going to have a chance to build her own family after having to also tend to her younger siblings, my other aunt and uncle. However, the morning after she told us that she was going to get married and that her fiancé was coming to meet us, she mentioned that she saw the figure of God in the sky. We are religious and know that clouds sometimes take shapes, but no one saw anything. My mom called my uncle and told him that Vero, had met a guy and was going to meet him. All of a sudden, my aunt began to cry in a way that I had never heard before, my uncle hugged her, she started saying that she had gotten married, and that god was good. Then, my uncle came out of the room and began to cry, my sisters, my mom and I, did as well. When we checked Vero’s phone, we were perplexed, the guy she said she had gotten married to, had never accepted her friend request. Nothing she had said about him was true. She had just invented or imagined a whole marriage with someone she had never interacted with. Now, it has been two years and my aunt is still the same. I would say that there has been small progress since she doesn’t get radical episodes of screaming, crying and waking up in the middle of the night as she did in the beginning. However, she still murmurs to herself, and has a different look in her eyes. The part that bothers me the most is that my grandma said that she just wants to leave her like that. Selfish. Ignorant. Cruel. That’s what I thought when I head my grandma’s decision. She is old, has lived her life and will eventually leave this world and then who. Who will take care of my aunt? I plan to major in nursing and convey to others that just like their physical health matters, their mental health also matters. This scholarship will allow me to finance my career and facilitate my advocacy for attention in mental health and the importance of getting diagnosed for people to live comfortable and independent lives.