All things take balance. For me, my self care is no exception. Sometimes I need a good hard workout to get through the tensions of the day. Other times a calm night in watching movies and ordering take out is just what I need. I know when I have done a lot of work in a day that the time I spend on these things may change. However, I still make an effort to have at least one activity a day that I only do because it makes me happy. Looking out for myself by keeping up with my own changing needs has really helped me in all aspects of my life. Comparing my life in school before I did self care to now it is clear that one happy activity a day has improved my grades. Not only has it improved my grades but it has also improved my social life because I look out to spend time with people who matter to me. Overall, I feel like I am more myself.

Dsleyxia, Delsxiya, or is it dyslexia? Second grade me was confused as to why I had to read in the hall. None of the other kids were out there. I was a bad reader and I needed help. I don't think that my second grade teacher knew what was wrong with me or how to properly address it. This made me feel ostracized and unintelligent. It wasn't until third grade that I would find my super hero, Mrs. Bolenbocker. She changed my whole education. I was so bad at writing and so behind. I had thoroughly bought into the idea that I was dumb by the time I sat in her class. She saw my work and what confusions I had and instantly knew that I was dyslexic. She did not see me as dumb, and she helped me to see that is not what I was. She spent her time looking up ways to help me. Mrs. B helped me to find tricks on how to work around my dyslexia. She created special work questions that would help me bridge my knowledge gap with my peers. This special hero helped me to increase my reading level to the fifth grade reading level by the end of the school year. I was able to do everything the rest of the class could. She picked me up from a very down place. When I didn't see my potential, Mrs. B saw it. She may never have told me to go to college, but the foundations she put down for me to be successful was imperative in my success in school. Even beyond her class I used the skills she taught me. Thanks to this teaching taking time to work with my learning disability, I was able to get into advanced placement classes. I believed in myself to do big things because of that. Without Mrs. B's work with me, I would have never felt like I would be able to go to college. I think about her every time I feel like I am not enough or that I want to give up. I think about her believing in me. It helps me to believe in me. Its the whole reason I did not drop out of college in undergrad. My Hero, Mrs. B, keeps me aiming to do things I never thought I would be able to do with dyslexia.

First generation college students miss a lot of insider knowledge when it comes to the how tos of college. But that's not what we focus on when we apply. As first generation college students, we were encouraged to chase our dream and to give back. So, that's why I am going back to school. I want to chase my dream of tackling health care disparities in minority communities. I want to change the hospital culture that believes black and brown women do not feel pain the same way that white people do. I want to encourage my peers to understand the minority dialect in conveying health care issues. When a latino like myself says that the evil eye is in their pansa, it means that they have stomach pain. With this scholarship, I will be able to focus on my studies instead of my part time job. I will also be able to volunteer with health care facilities where I can make connections and work on awareness programs around healthcare disparities in minority populations. This money will let me do things that directly relate to my dream. I would be able to do things that make me feel fulfilled. This money is an opportunity to start my impact now.

With my biological father out of the pictures, It was just us against the world: Mom, sis, and me. When my dad first left, I took my resentment for him out on her. She loved me anyway. She loved me even when I felt I was unlovable. She showed me that while my dad may not be there anymore that she was not leaving me, that she would not let anyone hurt me again, and that she would help me get through anything. She built me back up each time I was down and taught me how she felt with it all. She had a perseverance in all aspects of her life. I could never put into words how much she taught me with her own perseverance through all the hard times we went through. I remember her crying after getting a ticket because she didn't know how shed make ends meet with that unexpected expense. While she was down for a bit, she knew she could work her way through this. We went on a ramen diet and she picked up extra shifts. She showed us exactly how to balance a budget. Her transparency taught us a lot about making our way though tough economic times. Despite this, she told us that she would likely never get ahead enough financially to retire. Seeing that struggle and knowing that she would never have the reward that most people get, I decided that the only reason to hustle for a higher paying job than would meet my needs would be to provide her that opportunity. My love for her completely lit the fire inside me to earn a degree and get a good job so that for once she wouldn't have to struggle. I picked a college not too far away so that I could help her when she needed me and I visited as much as I could.Everyday I think about how much easier my life has been than hers and that she's the only person I have to thank for that. The challenges we faced together, emotionally and financially, make me feel so prepared for anything life could throw at me. These challenges gave me confidence to jump into action to solve problems, where I can. As a minority woman, the child of a single mother, and someone with a can-do attitude, I felt very called to address issues in women's health in Cleveland. The neighborhood directly adjacent to one of the top hospitals in the county has one of the highest infant and mother mortality rates in the country. The issues causing this are complex, but not insurmountable. I hope to get my Nurse Practitioner degree so that I can work with a non-profit that provides mobile pre-natal care to mothers in the area for free to address that disparity in care and become an advocate for minority women in a way that will directly impact health care outcomes. This past year was difficult with the pandemic to get health-care hours needed to be admitted to my desired program. So, I took a class and became an Emergency Medical Technician to get my health care hours. I Applied once I was sure I'd have enough to get in to a direct entry Master of Nursing program and was accepted in November. This scholarship will help me to save time working, so that I can volunteer with the mobile prenatal care unit I one day plan to join and will help me to focus on performing the best I can in school. This scholarship will help me to give back to all the moms that are struggling, not just my own.

Cup of noodles in hand, shades on to hide the all nighter eye-bags, and one term paper submitted 5 minutes before the deadline: This is what the movies said college was all about. As I look over with an exhausted smile of satisfaction, I see my friend sipping casually on her coffee and scrolling through insta. "I don't see how you're so chill right now. That term paper was brutal." I rasp in my tired voice. "Oh, I just asked for an extension! Mines not due for another 3 days." She chirped back. She went onto explain that you can apparently ask for an extension for just about any reason. My eyes widened, my face twitched and my mind was once again blown by all of the tings that I don't know as a first generation college student. Many of my first generation college friends shared in the feeling that everyone else was told all of the cheat codes and all of the social rules to being successful in school. I was very lost in undergrad. I had no clue how anything worked. This worked for me, because that meant that I got to push the envelope. I joined a lab my freshman year not knowing that I was supposed to wait for sophomore year. I did wonderful things in Biomedical engineering, I presented at poster conferences and won scholarships. Everyone was so proud of me, but I knew that the lab was not the right fit for my very social mindset. Despite wanting to change majors to nursing, my family was impressed with my research and encouraged me to reconsider. Not knowing how things were supposed to go in college worked against me because I didn't know how to stand up for what I really wanted. I graduated with a degree in a field of study I did not want and got a job that was not right for me in 2019. When the Pandemic hit and my social interactions for the day went from 10 people to 0 people, I decided it was time to go get what I really wanted. Within a month of the state shutting down, I applied and was accepted into an EMT program and was certified to be an Emergency Medical Technician by the end of the year. I used the experience I gained from that program to encourage me to apply to a direct entry Nurse Practitioner Program and I was accepted! Being a first generation college student made my path of becoming a Nurse Practitioner very unorthodox, but full of life lessons for the next generation.

Every kid grows up thinking that their mom is the nicest person on the planet and that their dad is Superman. My mom was the nicest person because she could look at my dad and still love him even after aggressive displays of his “super strength”. I did not know that what my dad did was abuse, but the nurse treating my broken arm did. She knew my fracture was not just a result of getting tripped by my sister. Even though so many people lied to her or told her to drop it, she kept advocating for me. While it wasn't until years later that I would finally be able to separate from my father, I continued to admire her fiery advocacy in the face of something that terrified me so much. I wanted to be like her: to form personal connections and help others when they cannot help themselves. In light of the recent pandemic, I decided to register for Emergency Medical Technician classes. It has been a huge shift from my current career path as a researcher, but one that makes me feel closer to my goal of connecting with and advocating for patients. But even as I take these classes, I have a desire to do more. Nursing would let me extend my role of an EMT and take more responsibility of patient care. I hope to create meaningful change in my community by providing quality care to all, especially when it comes to the inequality in infant and mother mortality for minorities in the Cleveland area. Despite having one of the best hospitals within walking distance, the neighborhood directly adjacent has one of the highest infant and mother mortality rates in the country. I hope to address this by providing a flexible care schedule to working mothers, along with child care and free prenatal care. I hope that my legacy is one that addresses inequality and challenges others to do something about the problems they see in the world.