
Age
19
Gender
Male
Ethnicity
Hispanic/Latino
Religion
Christian
Church
Christian Church
Hobbies and interests
Art
Artificial Intelligence
Music
Animation
Anime
History
Art History
Reading
Writing
Reading
Action
Art
Fantasy
Adventure
Science Fiction
Philosophy
Literary Fiction
Gothic
Horror
I read books daily
US CITIZENSHIP
US Citizen
LOW INCOME STUDENT
Yes
FIRST GENERATION STUDENT
Yes
Najair Acuna
1,835
Bold Points1x
Finalist1x
Winner
Najair Acuna
1,835
Bold Points1x
Finalist1x
WinnerBio
I am a Hispanic/Latino High School Senior who's passion is Progamming. my goal is to go to college and be the first member of my family who graduates from college. I'll be the first generation of my family
Education
California Virtual Academy @ Los Angeles
High SchoolGPA:
3.9
Miscellaneous
Desired degree level:
Bachelor's degree program
Majors of interest:
- Computer Science
- Computer Programming
- Security Science and Technology
- Computer Systems Networking and Telecommunications
- Computer Systems Analysis
Career
Dream career field:
Computer Software
Dream career goals:
Being a Software Engineer
Future Interests
Advocacy
Fernandez Scholarship
I would like to be and work as a software engineer, by working in a big company to working on applications or websites that can help people in their daily lives, as for working on problem resolving to fix other problems that my community could have, and learning how the algorithm works to improve more applications.
My passion for coding started when in 2022, my cousin introduced me to programming. At first, it felt impossible, I couldn’t wrap my head around the concepts. But I stayed curious, kept going, and eventually, things started to click.
This past summer, my cousin encouraged me to join Teens Exploring Technology (TXT), an 8-week leadership and coding program. In TXT, we worked in teams of four, with roles like developer, project manager, UX designer, and scrum master. I was the developer on my team, and we built an app using JavaScript. On the final day, we even pitched our app to potential investors. It was such an eye-opening experience, and it sparked an even deeper interest in building real-world applications.
I especially want to develop an application that would help a lot of families that are at risk of deportation. The application will use react native (which is a framework for a coding language called: JavaScript) as a front end, mongo D.B for the backend as a database.
The application offers essential resources like legal aid contacts, emergency numbers, power of attorney documents, and consulate contacts.
Plus, it’s bilingual (English and Spanish) with plans to add more languages soon to be more accessible for more people whose English is their second language. My goal is to launch RISE as an open-source tool in 2025, so others can contribute and help expand its reach to more communities across the U.S. Looking ahead, I want to use my education and coding skills to keep developing tech solutions that make a difference.
Whether it’s helping families navigate immigration challenges or tackling other social issues, I’m committed to creating tools that would help a lot of people and making safe and inclusive communities for anyone who needs the help and this could impact my community.
The best part is that the application would be open-source which means that anyone can help and contribute to add more things that can help the people or fix some stuff in the code. Many families would receive the help that they need.