I am a Hispanic student of Mexican descent who will be the first in my family to attend college. Although I was born in the U.S. I struggled greatly to learn English because my parents took me to Mexico and when I came back to the U.S. I came towards the end of the school year so I was only able to attend Kindergarten for less than two months. As a result, I did not pass kindergarten and had to retake it. I remember I was bullied to a great degree throughout Kindergarten because I struggled with learning English. Many kids kept calling me "turtle" as a reference to my "slow" learning and inability to understand English. I remember I began to feel like I was not capable of ever succeeding and at the same time I became strict with myself and pushed myself more to study vocabulary every single day after school for about three hours. Several times while studying I would break down and begin crying because sometimes I did not know how to pronounce certain words and I had no one to teach me. In addition during this time my family lived in a small room that we were renting so it was my parents and three siblings inside that tiny room which made it even more difficult to focus and study. The bullying I experienced encouraged me to study and push myself more. One of the reasons I want to be a surgeon is because my mom once got extremely sick and at that time where I was living there weren't many Spanish speakers. My dad took my mom to the emergency room and I had to stay with my siblings to babysit them, leaving my parents with no one to translate. The doctors and nurses did not even attempt to communicate with them so my mom just left and then had to go back a few months later. We were told that if she had taken even as little as 30 minutes longer to get to the emergency room she would have most likely had a hemorrhage and died. This is just one of many times that my family has faced medical neglect because of language barriers. Due to my experiences, I developed a great interest in learning languages. I have been taking Italian for all four years of high school and even attended an Italian Immersion program at Montclair State University on a full scholarship which greatly improved my ability to speak and understand Italian. I hope to learn at least four other languages throughout my life and be able to not eliminate but rather minimize the neglect that patients face due to language barriers. I am a big believer that an education is important and that it opens your life to many opportunities. Although my parents never had a college education they have always instilled this belief in me. I am the oldest of five and because of this among other financial circumstances, my parents will not be able to help me at all with paying for college or any other expenses. This scholarship would help me to make my dreams about going to college come true. I also want to be a surgeon in the future, most likely a pediatric surgeon, and following this career choice is extremely expensive and challenging. This scholarship would assist me in reducing the cost and allow me to focus more on learning and enjoying the college experience rather than focusing solely on how I will pay for everything.