As the daughter of immigrant parents who moved to America in the search for a better life, I grew up on stories of struggle and devastation. My parents didn’t have access to long-term education, abandoning school for work to have enough food for the whole family. They didn’t have the childhood I was blessed with and were too familiar with hunger and poverty to ever let their own children experience the like. Although we were a working-class family, they never let me realize it or have it be a prominent aspect of my identity. Due to this, I grew up blind to the actual situation in the United States and slowly started realizing that I had a warped idea of reality. There are millions of people suffering from poverty and food insecurity here, too. There are people who can’t afford a home, who can’t afford healthcare, or who can’t find jobs. America was not the safe haven they painted it to be. I started realizing that our quality of life wasn't the norm for most, that most schools had art and music programs, that heavy police presence in neighborhoods wasn't the same for a prominently-white one across town. My passion for service, then, comes from lived experience. It is my goal to not only support people, but to change the system that allows for this inequity in the first place. I started this journey in high school. Everyone had to fulfill an hourly requirement, but it never felt like homework to me. I enjoyed going on awareness walks, delivering food through Meals on Wheels, raising money for charity, and organizing blood drives at school. It wasn't until my freshman year in college, however, that I began to dedicate my advocacy to one cause. I continue to advocate for all those oppressed, but it is immigration that has become my center. I joined a group called Comm*Unity that first year in college. It was an Alternative Break program for first-year commuter students that centered around refugee and immigrant rights. Our weekly meetings were something I looked forward to. We also engaged in community service projects such as repainting an elementary school. This all led up to the spring break trip to Georgia where we helped organizations with their work in the resettled refugee community and engaged in an afterschool program that helped refugee middle school children adjust. I was able to see many injustices firsthand and became saddened and angered by my privilege and how I was not using it for the better good. I wanted to use the privilege of being born here to support the communities I came from, the immigrant community. It was no longer enough to feel connected through inaction, through my own parents' migration stories. I realized that I didn't want to just fulfill there idea of an American Dream- me becoming a doctor. I made the decision to stop putting my own passions aside and study what I knew I truly wanted to: Sociology, Social Cultural Analysis and Social Work. I believe that fighting for the liberation of all is truly the American Dream. Even today, the practices of the United States not only affect the status of our own country but are constantly ruining foreign countries and peoples. I wanted to use the privilege of being born here to support the communities I came from, the immigrant community. These are things that I was not aware of before my involvement in advocacy. It has definitely shaped my view of the world.

Access to education plays a major role in life chances. It provides a wide breadth of job opportunities that are only open to those with a degree, and also serves as a connection to other bright minds both as peers and professors. Yet, it is also an experience often denied to those who don't have enough funds. Education has always been a big part of my life. I based a large part of my identity and self-worth on my grades, as I directly linked it to my ability to make my parents' struggles worth it. This started changing as I got older, a trend that I've come to realize many first-generation immigrant students follow. This was due to the burn out that comes from pursuing a dream that isn't ours. College affirmed that for me, but also provided an opportunity to explore many other fields. I have found my motivation again, with the slight difference that I love education for the knowledge itself. I'm not chasing a grade, but new things to learn. I have chosen to focus my studies in for social oriented fields. I am currently majoring in Sociology with a double major in Social and Cultural Analysis and NYU. I also minor in Social Work and Chinese (language studies). I am aware that my access to higher education is a privilege, and I plan on ensuring that I play a role in a future generation that establishes that access as a right. This goes hand in hand with combating the other injustices and inequality in our society, such as food inequality, poverty, mental health stigma, and lack of universal access to health care.

As a first-generation, daughter of immigrants, seeing the trauma imposed on the immigrant community during these last couple years is horrid. This is especially true for Latinos- my own community. There have been policy changes to immigration processes, xenophobia exacerbated by a president who encourages that ideology, and a general fear to exist under such a regime. In the context of our society, it is hard to make direct change (especially as a women of color) without a socially accepted degree that gains you access to the world of privilege. So, I want to use my law degree in order to make a change in immigration law and policy, and to continue my advocacy. I also want to get my Master's of Social Work at the same time, since I think social workers have valuable skills that we must incorporate into every career. I have imagined myself as an immigration lawyer, as a social worker who volunteers her skills in court accompaniment and youth immigrant services, and an advocate that joins the already existing movements aiming for reform. These are goals that many of the people who experience marginalization will aim for, but it is compounded by the reality that is capitalism. Access to the privileged world, after all, requires a monetary investment that not everyone is able to provide. If I get this scholarship, I also plan on using it to pay an LSAT prep course. As of now, I have been attempting solo-preparation.