For me the simple pleasures in my life are spending time with my loved ones, you never know what will happen the next day and to just spend time with someone that I love and get off my phone or any electronic devices while enjoying that company or going on an adventure it makes me very happy.

I am from Venezuela, I moved to the States in 2014. I did not speak English at all but I had a lot of help from people around me making sure I got to the right place and guiding me with directions or if I had concerns. I want to make a difference in the world by also helping people who are Spanish speakers and are lost and need a guide to get to the right place. The way there is good people out there, there are also people who do not mean well and they might point you in the wrong direction. I want to study Accounting since I am very good with numbers and programs in the computer such as Quickbook, Excel and Spreadsheets. I am in my 2nd semester of sophomore year and just need a couple courses to get into the program. I have worked very hard all of these years to get to where I am and I plan on continuing until I reach my goal and help the people around me.

My mindset has changed since the beginning of my undergraduate degree. I am a first student generation, and my parents had no idea of how to apply for universities, how much it costs, which options are cheaper, how to have a plan to get everything done; because yes, there is A LOT to get done when you start thinking on going to college. I had to figure out everything on my own, a first-generation student and still learning English as I go. In my senior year of High School, all my friends were applying to different universities all around the state, I thought to myself: why not apply? I should also go to college after I graduate from High School and continued to apply to every university one of my friend was applying to. I got into most of them, which was VERY exciting, the only problem was when it came down to deciding, one of my friends was telling me all about tuition and how she has been applying to scholarships for the last year to get some help covering at least a part of it. I had no idea what she was talking about, that is when I started googling everything and came to find out college is very expensive here in the U.S. I ended up reaching out to one of my teachers and explaining everything that was going on and how I had no idea what to do next, she suggested for me to go to a community college since the first 2 years all you take is college basic requisites, that way I could start saving money for later and have a chance to apply for scholarships and do more research about everything. All of this helped my growth mentally, I feel that after going through all of this, one comes out more mature. I am starting at the University Of North Carolina At Greensboro 2 years after graduating from Wake Technical Community College with an Associate's Degree and two certificates. My educational goals are to finish strong with my Bachelor's Degree in Accounting and if able to go for my Master's Degree.

My mindset has changed since the beginning of my undergraduate degree. I am a first student generation, and my parents had no idea of how to apply for universities, how much it costs, which options are cheaper, how to have a plan to get everything done; because yes, there is A LOT to get done when you start thinking on going to college. I had to figure out everything on my own, a first-generation student and still learning English as I go. In my senior year of High School, all my friends were applying to different universities all around the state, I thought to myself: why not apply? I should also go to college after I graduate from High School and continued to apply to every university one of my friend was applying to. I got into most of them, which was VERY exciting, the only problem was when it came down to deciding, one of my friends was telling me all about tuition and how she has been applying to scholarships for the last year to get some help covering at least a part of it. I had no idea what she was talking about, that is when I started googling everything and came to find out college is very expensive here in the U.S. I ended up reaching out to one of my teachers and explaining everything that was going on and how I had no idea what to do next, she suggested for me to go to a community college since the first 2 years all you take is college basic requisites, that way I could start saving money for later and have a chance to apply for scholarships and do more research about everything. All of this helped my growth mentally, I feel that after going through all of this, one comes out more mature. I am starting at the University Of North Carolina At Greensboro 2 years after graduating from Wake Technical Community College with an Associate's Degree and two certificates. My educational goals are to finish strong with my Bachelor's Degree in Accounting and if able to go for my Master's Degree. All of this helped me growth mentally, I feel that after going through all of this, one comes out more mature. I am starting at University Of North Carolina At Greensboro 2 years after graduating from Wake Technical Community College with an Associate's Degree and two certificates. My educational goals are to finish strong with my Bachelor's Degree in Accounting and if able to go for my Master's Degree.

My name is Paola Mendoza, I am a first-generation college student. My family and I moved here from Venezuela a few years ago. We came with nothing, only one suitcase each and we started from the bottom and I am proud to say we are doing good and have become really far. I work hard every day to help my parents with anything they need, A way for me to make them proud and know that I did not take for granted them moving from their homeland to provide a better future for me, is to do good in my studies and get a Bachelor's degree or even a Master's. I plan to make a positive impact on the world by pursuing my Bachelor's in Accounting and helping out the Hispanic community in that field, making sure they are heard and getting the help they need. I currently work at a High School as a receptionist and there is a lot of Latinx families that do not have any idea with what's going on with their kid, or if something happens to their kid they do not get the whole story since kids when they translate, they only translate what they think is important to them. Its been 1 year and a half since I have been here and some families know there is a bilingual person at the front desk so every day more and more families come for help and to understand what is going on with their students. My goal is to also become a certified translator, or get Spanish as a minor, that way if I am helping somebody at least is accurate, not saying my Spanish would not be accurate but when you learn a second language, the first language kind of gets mixed up a bit more. I am proud to say I am a first-generation student and that I belong to the Latinx community. For me that gives it how hard I have worked to get where I am right now, and to want to pursue my dreams. When I moved from Venezuela a few years back and went through all the processes to continue my education and got turned away a lot of times, I would have never thought that 2 years later I would try again and this time would actually work in my favor. My goal right now is to apply for as many scholarships as I can, that way I will not be having a crazy amount of student loans by the time I graduate with my Bachelor's.

My name is Paola Mendoza, I am a first-generation college student. My family and I moved here from Venezuela a few years ago. We came with nothing, only one suitcase each and we started from the bottom and I am proud to say we are doing good and have become really far. I work hard every day to help my parents with anything they need, A way for me to make them proud and know that I did not take for granted them moving from their homeland to provide a better future for me, is to do good in my studies and get a Bachelor's degree or even a Master's. I plan to make a positive impact on the world by pursuing my Bachelor's in Accounting and helping out the Hispanic community in that field, making sure they are heard and getting the help they need. I currently work at a High School as a receptionist and there is a lot of Latinx families that do not have any idea with what's going on with their kid, or if something happens to their kid they do not get the whole story since kids when they translate, they only translate what they think is important to them. Its been 1 year and a half since I have been here and some families know there is a bilingual person at the front desk so every day more and more families come for help and to understand what is going on with their students. My goal is to also become a certified translator, or get Spanish as a minor, that way if I am helping somebody at least is accurate, not saying my Spanish would not be accurate but when you learn a second language, the first language kind of gets mixed up a bit more. I am proud to say I am a first-generation student and that I belong to the Latinx community. For me that gives it how hard I have worked to get where I am right now, and to want to pursue my dreams. When I moved from Venezuela a few years back and went through all the processes to continue my education and got turned away a lot of times, I would have never thought that 2 years later I would try again and this time would actually work in my favor. My goal right now is to apply for as many scholarships as I can, that way I will not be having a crazy amount of student loans by the time I graduate with my Bachelor's.

A bit about myself; I am 23 year old student from Venezuela, I moved here when I was 16 years old knowing not english and I had help from a lot of people to get to where I am now. I chose my area of study because since I moved here even thought I did not speak English, I always understood numbers and I am really good at it, I took Accounting classes during my first 2 years of college and I liked it a lot. I plan to use my education to make a difference in the world by guiding people who are probably in the same shoes I was. Helping them get in the right paths and showing them everything I had to go through and probably finding more easier ways now.