The values, experiences, and relationships that have made me the person I am today were in large part in the circumstances I had to face early in life. My mom is an immigrant from Mexico who gained U.S. citizenship around the turn of the 21st century. My dad’s family are similarly from Mexico, though he was born here. When I was born, I had an older sister, who was my half-sister. My mom and dad would continue to have 3 more kids, making me the oldest brother. But it was around the time my mom was pregnant with my youngest sibling that my dad got arrested, leaving my mom to have to raise 5 kids without any financial support from others. The only support we had was from my grandma, who moved to the U.S. for a few years to help my mom take care of us, but it was clear we were all affected, not only financially but emotionally, from not having a reliable father figure. This instilled an important value within me from a very young age to be a supportive figure for others. My mom was a big proponent of this. Despite having many sleepless nights balancing work and taking care of her kids for their future, my mom never gave up on us. She made it clear she wanted us to go to college to put ourselves in a better situation and because it was her duty as our mom to give us her unrelenting support. She was also kind to others and never expected anything in return, which I believe is a healthy mindset to have. While I supported my mom by helping her raise my younger siblings, acting as the male figure of the house, I also wanted to honor her wishes and obtain a higher education and be kind to others. Throughout high school, I was on top of my classes and served as an effective peer tutor in the AVID program and for my friends. AVID and the CSF club also pushed me to do community service around my community. So I began volunteering for many events for elementary schools and other organizations. One thing I quickly realized was that I enjoyed serving the community, especially working with kids, in large part to having grown up with 3 younger siblings. While this didn’t affect my choice to pursue a major in computer science, it certainly left a mark in me that continues to grow as I also volunteer in events during college. This scholarship would support my already strong passion for helping others, allowing me to continue going to college at UCSB and to contribute to the field of cybersecurity. It would also allow me to support a new community- that of Santa Barbara. In particular, helping first-generation Hispanic students that visit campus through organizations such as MESA and Los Ingenieros.

I first learned about computer science in my freshman year of high school. I had a math teacher named Henderson, who taught math and computer science. He considered me one of his best students that year and invited me to put computer science principles in my schedule. He believed that I would find it interesting. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take it in my sophomore year, as my schedule was full. He was a bit disappointed, but I promised that I would try again in junior year. When it was time to choose my classes, I made it clear to my counselor that computer science is something that I wanted to take. I didn’t know if I would enjoy it or not, but it was good to at least try. Junior year was fun because I had 4 AP classes, all of which I found interesting. But I quickly learned that I found AP Computer Science Principles was my favorite. We began the year by making simple programs on code.org about random subjects we could choose. For example, my friend and I made a program that explained why pandas suck. It was this creativity and freedom that made my busy junior year feel fresh. But this was even before I learned how to code. The coding process was something that made perfect sense to me. I was good at debugging, and I was quick to learn every topic of JavaScript. As a result, I was able to contribute a lot to the many collaborative projects we had. In general, I was able to help my classmates with their code, making me one of the best students in the class. I wanted to continue taking computer science in my senior year through AP Computer Science A. Although I got a 3 in the AP CSP exam, I decided I wanted to major in computer science. In my research, I found that computer science is a viable major due to its growth and pay. Computer science is also something that I enjoy. AP CSA reinforced that passion, as we learned more complex code through Java. I enjoy going on Codingbat and doing the Java levels. We recently began programming a retro videogame, something which I enjoy very much. This class as a whole has greatly inspired me to continue learning computer science. Recently, I got accepted to the computer science program at UCSB, which is known for its computer science program. UCSB has been my top choice for a college since my sophomore year. As a result, I worked very hard to hopefully get accepted there. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do in my future until I started taking computer science in high school. This made my choices in college more clear and I would apply to 9 colleges, each with computer science as my major. One reason I was very motivated to go to college, and by extension major in computer science, is for money. I grew up in a low-income Mexican family. Having no connections, my only opportunity to have a good career is to go to college. But many majors could make good careers. Therefore, my second reason for studying computer science is that I enjoy it. I find coding and creating programs to be fun. I like playing video games a lot, so working for companies like Bethesda appeals to me. I would also be very interested in working in cybersecurity as it is a growing industry with the potential to be a good career.

Ever since I was around 7, my 4 siblings and I have been supported by our mother. This was because my dad got arrested and has since been unable to provide for us. As a result, our family has struggled a lot financially. My mom has received help from my grandma and other family members and friends to stay afloat barely, but we still aren’t able to live comfortably. Since elementary school, I didn’t have many opportunities for extracurriculars, such as sports and clubs, due to not having money or even a reliable source of transportation. Although I have some extracurricular activities, I spend most of my time at home with my siblings. After my older sister left for college, I, along with my grandma, took care of my younger siblings. This gave me plenty of experience working with little kids. I felt I was responsible as an older brother to help raise my younger siblings. My mom still wanted me to be active in school. She found that AVID was a good fit for me since I wanted to go to college and have a well-paying job, which is what AVID prepares me for. One requirement for AVID is to have community service hours. Although I am meant to do around 10 hours of community service every semester, I was unable to gain many community service hours in my freshman and sophomore years due to the aforementioned problems I stated. But in my junior year of high school, I wanted to dedicate myself to earning community service experience. I started to look for community service opportunities that were near my house. This started with volunteering as a candy runner for the Joshua Circle Elementary fall festival. This was my first time volunteering at an elementary school. I found out that I enjoyed volunteering and working with kids, as it gives me the same rewarding feeling I have being an older brother. Moving forward, I would take any opportunity to volunteer at an elementary school near me. I volunteered at many elementary schools since. This includes the time I ran a game of tic-tac-toe for the Eucalyptus Elementary fall festival and handed out candy to the winners. I also ran this very popular game that iinvolvedme putting candy behind certain doors and spraying kids who opened the wrong doors. These experiences taught me that helping others was free, easy, and benefited both the community and myself. I’ve done other volunteer work besides elementary school events. I participated in my city’s clean-up day two years in a row for the CSF club, a California scholarship club for high-achieving students. I helped pick up garbage behind my high school for around 4 hours each time. I find this kind of work calming and an easy way to help the environment that I deeply care about. I plan to continue doing community service, even during college. My mom is proud of the work I have done and I will continue to make her and myself proud. I hope to go to college and pursue a career in computer science. This is my passion and will hopefully lead to me having a good job so that I can take care of my family in the future.