My educational journey path hasn't been traditional but I needed to stay resilient so I could one day inspire and guide others who could be in the same situation I was. Upon graduating high school I was a very average student, I had decent grades that allowed me to secure a little bit of scholarship money. For me, college was one of those things that just fell in line with things you do in life. You graduate high school then you go to college was the plan for me set out by my family and something I never questioned until a week before I started college. In my first year, I realized I would have to take out almost $16,000 in loans and began to question if college was for me or not. I had no idea what I wanted to major in and had about $100 dollars to my name and decided to opt-out to work full time and attend a community college. I worked full time for 3 years to save up for one year at a university and obtained all my basic classes at a community college. Throughout the 3 years, I struggled with depression. I felt like I was a failure and that I would never figure out my life. I felt like no matter how much I worked I would never be able to afford a university where I could make changes for life. When I finally felt stable enough and transferred to my university I felt out of place, here I am already have experienced adulthood and my peers are 17/18 with nothing but time. After meeting several people that had similar situations to me I felt uplifted and proud of my journey. I was in the position I had worked hard for and didn't appreciate it because I was so caught up in thinking of all the negatives. I plan to use my degree to uplift others from underrepresented communities by sharing my story. I want to create career readiness programs for middle school and high school-aged kids to get them exposed to different possible careers and get them excited about possible things they can do with their futures. I want to eventually one day open up a scholarship for underrepresented communities to elevate some of the stress paying for college can put on you. I am currently going to school to obtain my bachelor's degree and psychology, and I want to use this degree to advocate for underrepresented communities to take proper care of their mental health and give them ways to do it.

My favorite tech invention of the last 10 years is the at-home testing kits, specifically the ones that test genetics. Not only is this tech invention great for finding out more about yourself and your heritage but a lot of them offer additional services for you to learn about traits you may possibly carry. From a health standpoint, this is amazing because it allows you to test early for certain genetic diseases, allows you to get an early start to make any lifestyle changes that cause your health to decline, and prepares you for any possible future health mishaps. This is also great for those who are adopted or don't have communication with their biological family to learn about their health. There are so many different at-home testing kits that serve in beneficial ways. At-home testing kits can promote health safety by allowing people to look after their own health from the comfort of their homes, like for example at-home covid testing kits and HPV at-home tests. During this pandemic, having the option of being able to test at home helps allow anyone who thinks they might be sick to stay at home, test themselves, and stop the spread it if it comes back positive. At-home testing also allows retrieved data to be stored on the corresponding app/ website which is great for documentation. At-home testing also helps caught down the cost of some medical expenses without cutting out doctors and medical providers. An example of this is at-home fertility tests, which remotely work with IVF doctors to help women plan out pregnancies, check fertility by testing hormone levels, and check vaginal health. In conclusion, I believe that at-home testing kits have been an amazing tech invention that can benefit many people in many ways, and I am excited to see it advance more over time.