1. My senior year of high school was a big one for me, because I knew I still wanted to play college basketball. I took basketball very seriously, in the middle of November we had tough preseason games, we were going to play Wilson High, a school we played in the semi finals of CIF and then we were going to play Verdugo High a team we lost to in the championship at CIF. This was a big game to me because I genuinely do not enjoy losing so to me my team and I had something to prove that we developed and got better over the summer and fall. As i was gearing up for my first game that Tuesday against Wilson, I found out my brother fell out of remission and was in the hospital for his sickness, it truly was devastating because my brother was told he was going to die. During this time I had to take care of my youngest brother while my parents where at the hospital with my other brother. My coach offered to let me leave but as captain I knew I needed to be there for my team, so I stayed I played the game to the best of my ability and cheered on my team and we won. This truly was the hardest week and challenge of my basketball career. I had the constant worry that my brother was going to pass away, the worry of letting down my team, and the reminder that my youngest brother is just as scared as I am and I need to take care of him as much as I can. 2. I play basketball, I have played basketball since I was four, I am a left handed shooting guard and have played collegiate basketball at Los Angeles Valley College, I have been named captain of my travel ball team Socal Ohana, named captain 2x All City First team and 1x All League Second Team of my high school team Chatsworth. Out of my college team I was also named captain my sophomore year, was Honorable Mention for League and on my team I was two time defensive player of the year. 3. Going into college I played community, everyone thought they were the best, even I did, but the truth is you come to play with the best of the best all competing for not only a spot on the team but a spot on the starting five. I thought I was one of the best players, going to be a starter for sure. I was a bench player, down on the bench, I never played offense and only came in to play defense, it was hard btu it was a challenge a reminder of how hard I am willing to work to prove i deserve a spot on the starting five. I silently worked, I worked on the things that I wasn't very good at and further developed my skills in the things I were good at. I learned how to help my teammates from the sideline until I could help them on the court. 4. I admire Kobe Bean Bryant, his work ethic, he determination and most of all his true hardcore passion. 5. This scholarship would help me pay for college, my dream is to be a nurse, but i still advocate women's sports, I feel there are so many unseen problems within the sports world, although I want to be a nurse, I will forever love sports, I love sports media, outreach and helping the sports community.

I am 19 years old, I am attending Los Angeles Valley College and will be transferring out and pursuing my BSN. I have wanted to be in the medical field since I was 10 years old. When I was 10, my brother fell ill and he was hospitalized for a rare autoimmune disease called aHUS, my brother was given three years left to live at the age of eight. I am so proud to say he beat the odds and my brother is still here. When he was in the hospital he got a central line, and his scar made him insecure, so I wanted to be a psychologist, I wanted him to talk to me about it and my dream school was Stanford, and it still is. Soon after I pretty much figured out that I couldn't be a psychologist because I am very emotional and I knew that profession would not be the best for me. I then decided that I wanted to be an Orthopedic Surgeon, I am a basketball player and I find orthopedics so fascinating, how can our body fight infections, protect us from the environment but still be weak enough to be brittle and break. I was dead set, figured out my life, until my brother fell ill one last time during my senior year of high school. I panicked I was so scared and that's when my mom told me all the amazing stories about how the nurses took care of him. How when he made jokes they laughed, when he needed anything they were there, they were the first to respond. That made me think, I have been told to be very reliable, helpful ,and charismatic a good person if you will, that is when I did a deep dive on nursing, what could I do what could I become? It hit me I want to be a CRNA, When my brother when under the nurses where so careful, when he woke up confused and scared they were there for him. I want to be a nurse more than anything, I appreciate the doctors and surgeons but truly the nurses are the backbone of the operation. Everyone has a job and a role but nurses are always there and so underappreciated, they set everything up, get everything ready, respond before anyone else does, they lift everyone up. My brother Michael is my biggest inspiration, he is the reason I want to be a nurse, he is the reason i keep pushing forward to help those just like him.

I am passionate about being a first generation, Mexican-American college graduate because it helps mi communidad. I live in the San Fernando Valley where many people like me, Hispanic first generation and living in poverty are not expected to go to college but rather succumb to the statistics and fall into addiction, become a teen mother, or become another headstone in the cemetery. I am a 19 year old Mexican American, my parent had me at the young age of 19, straight after high school. Looking at the stereotype I should be pregnant now, but I am not. This is because of my parents because of them and their sacrifices i have the ability to write you and pursue a degree and hopefully get my Bachelors of Science in Nursing. I am so passionate about graduating because this is not just for me but for my family, my parents who were never given the support to go to college but rather the handbook on how to be parents at a young age, I am doing it for my younger brothers to prove that they are so much more than just a Hispanic boy, but most of all I am doing it for my ancestors, my grandparents who crossed the border to give my family better life, for my family stuck in Mexico and for those are detained for wanting to pursue a better life in America. There have been moments where I felt like giving up, where I wondered if it truly is possible where I suffered from imposter syndrome because i didn't know how to register for classes, or I did not know where to get my textbooks how to fill out FASFA and neither did my parents. Those were the moments where I felt out of place, explaining to my friends that my parents didn't go to college where I had no idea where to start in my own journey. Being Mexican is my badge of honor, my people are full of life, aspirations, they are not statistics, they are not drug dealers, gangs, but rather scientist, doctors, motivational speakers, my people change the world and I want to be apart of that change. I want people to know that we are more than what the stereotype says we are, that we are more than what the president makes us seem. We are constantly having to pave the way I am paving the way, I am not the only one in my family graduating my parents are, because they at the end of the day helped me study, they helped me get to class, they gave me motivation during those late night study sessions. I am more than a statistic, I am more than the color on my skin, I am a future CRNA, I am a first generation college graduate btu i know for a fact that my parents sacrifice, my sacrifice i will not be the last college graduate in my family.

My greatest achievement to date isn't even one so big but it means the most to me because it shaped who I became. My greatest achievement was when I was 8 and on my basketball team I own defensive player of the year. That year we had gone undefeated and our coach all gave us individual awards, I was never exactly good at basketball, I was never a scorer or a great rebounded but I loved defense and I love playing and being that role. I remember being so happy that I got defensive player of the year I was so proud of myself. That award shaped me to who I am, although my skills were lacked in basketball my coach always knew I had the IQ, whenever he asked a question I was the first to respond, whenever he asked of an assignment I made sure to do it to the absolute best of my ability. To this day I am 19, still playing collegiate basketball and defense is still my favorite part of the game and I can proudly say I have gotten defensive player of the year on all my teams since my very first award. With this I new that your name doesn't have to be the biggest or your stats sometimes helping anyone comes behind the scenes, sometimes it is making someone cause a turnover but it doesn't count as a steal, sometimes its playing such great defense the other team is fatigue and annoyed. I learned to use that throughout my everyday life, that it doesn't have to be big or shouted to everyone your stats or how well you do or are doing what truly matters is how you help others how you made others achieve this goal, because although offense wins games defense wins championships, its the little details that help me remember that the world doesn't need to know my "stats" I just need to know my worth on my own. I hope to achieve a lot in the future, I hope to continue playing collegiate basketball, go to nursing school, become a CRNA, travel the world and eventually have a family. In the future I want to be as successful as I can be and always remember my goals an my upbringing, how it took one little minor accomplish that no one but my parents saw to make me become the person I am today.

My name is Madison Guerrero, I am 19 years old, a college sophomore at Los Angeles Valley College I am studying nursing and play collegiate basketball. This scholarship would immensely help me, although I am blessed to have a home I am not fortunate to have that much assistance. In this last year my father suffered cuts in his hours at work and my mother had a severe pay cut at her job as well so this year was harder than others. I choose to go to community college to make it easier on my parents and myself, however now both my brother and I will be in college together at the same time, him an incoming freshman and me a junior. I want to become a CRNA, since this requires additional school I knew going to a Community college would allow me two year of free education, then transfer to get my degree and move on to my specialty without having suffered much debt. To help my community I volunteered at a non-profit organization Unidas pro Ella, it is an organization that is dedicated to helping young girls in their basketball journey but Las their self journey in learning confidence and how to love themselves. We help girls from the youngest age possible until senior year of high school, after that the college students become the teachers. A time I failed was my sophomore year of high school, it wasn't on a test or on a project, it wasn't even on my team I failed myself. My sophomore year of high school I was playing basketball, and the coach was demeaning towards me, but I felt so proud to be on varsity on a winning team so I stated silent. I failed myself because I failed to speak up, it wasn't until my parents could visibly see that I no longer loved basketball but resented it, I hated going to practice because I just new I'd be the target of my coach that practice and if I wasn't a target I wasn't even a person on the court but rather just a drag. However, I would say by biggest strengths are my adaptability and my perseverance. No matter how hard it gets I find just a little more I can give to keep telling me I can do it. I never give up, I get knocked down and I get up and I attempt it all over again. I know that I can do it, to me it is just a matter of how and when, nothing is impossible it is just a persons willingness to keep going no matter how hard it gets. This is my biggest strength.

One is "Ocean Eyes" this song got me through my breakup, it just was such a soothing melody and it resonated with me because I felt so alone during this hard time and just her tone, her emotion, the direction f it made me just feel seen and not alone. It felt personal and helpful it made me feel better in a way that is harder to explain. Another is "What Was I Made For?" Not only did the movie touch me but this song was on constant replay, as a woman, a Mexican American young girl it is hard and after what has in the recent election I feel threatened. However because of this song I feel somewhat put to peace that change can happen and that I am not and will never be alone, although being a woman is so tough and it comes with rules and regulations I eel no one captivated that message of the tone or even the emotion as well as Billie Eilish did. My last favorite is "Lovely" which features Khalid, when this song came out in 2018 I was 13 years old. I was barely figuring out who I was, who I want to be, and overall going through teenage years. This song was almost a tribute I made to myself that no matter how hard it got I was always going to find a way to make something of myself and make it out of just the stereotype that Mexican girls get pregnant and start a family rather than go to college.

When my brother back in 2016 at the young age of eight was diagnosed with a super rare disease called aHUS and was given only three years left to live I had found my calling. Since his diagnosis I knew I wanted to be in the medical field, I wanted to help others who did not know what to do to help themselves in these situations. I want to be the person they come to when something is wrong. For the longest time I didn't know what part of the medical field I wanted to get into it started with psychology to be a person that others knew would listen and help them it was because I knew my brother had a hard time talking to others about what he had gone through or even how the scar from his central line made him insecure. For the longest time I felt that was my true calling, however knowing the dark truth in psychology that it is a hard job I knew mentally I could not handle that position. Then I started dabbling into what I thought would be many different things. At first I wanted to go into orthopedics because as an athlete I am constantly at risk of injuring myself and currently I have a torn labrum in my left shoulder. I wanted to be the person for athletes that could fix them and get them ready for a new season. I found it interesting how fascinating the body and how it works and just how it can be repaired by taking a different tendon or ligament to make a new one yet how meticulously and carefully they do it. Part of me still loves this career option, however it is down to my core I am meant to be a CRNA. A CRNA’s job is so important and fascinating, their job helps people not feel a thing by putting them to sleep or giving them other medication to help them not feel pain. I love the stories and even one from my brother's surgery in which the moment he said ten he knocked right out. With being a CRNA I play a vital role in surgery, and I get to be a part of many operations I find fascinating in the medical field. Although it is small it requires loads of focus, intellect, attention to detail. I am not limited in the job of being a CRNA, although yes a particular role I am involved in many different aspects, the job would keep me engaged and throughout the process I will never stop learning. I am a first generation college student, I am second generation Mexican American as my grandparents migrated here. By applying and already being in community college I am breaking down barriers that prevented my parents and family from going to college. I have paved the road for my siblings to have an opportunity by being the first and going through this process not alone but without help from a parent or family member. I want to build a better life not just for myself but for my parents to show them that their sacrifices were not taken advantage off but rather used as a lesson and stepping stone to being better.