Single motherhood saved my life. I was five months pregnant when I graduated with my Master's degree; my son went to graduate school before he was born. Having to juggle school, work, and my pregnancy on my own was difficult, but I am grateful for the journey. I built a community to help me get thru my last semester of graduate school and secure a livelihood that today is my passion. I am a first-generation college student—the first in my family to earn a bachelor's and master's degree. Education was a core value in my family; my mother and father barely had a grade school education but stressed the importance of obtaining a degree. They recognized that a degree was an opportunity to a different world. What is the saying we make plans, and God laughs? I never expected to be a single mother, but in retrospect, his decision to leave us was the best one for all of us. It forced me to reflect on my life choices, grow my community, and find a way to juggle raising a baby and working full time. My family was a huge reason I was able to continue moving forward. My mother and sister helped with babysitting when I needed to work late. As a young educator working in a college-setting, the work demands can be overwhelming even for a seasoned professional. I would pick up my son from daycare, and my coworker would play with him while I finished a project and then took him home for my mother to take care him. Juggling the stressors of a budding career and motherhood. No one ever talks about the amount of stress and guilt that comes from being a single mom. Honestly, many days I felt like a failure, but my son depended on me, and I didn't have time to wallow in self-pity. You pick yourself off the floor and move forward. Somehow you find the resiliency and perseverance because you have a little one who depends on you. He is now a college student in his junior year; he holds himself to high standards and wants to achieve more than I do because he wants to spoil me. At twenty-one, he recognizes the challenges that I experienced and dreams of giving me a better future. He is the one that encouraged me to fulfill my dream of returning to graduate school and finishing my objective of achieving a doctoral degree. His courage and strength motivate me to set my goal of becoming Dr. Medina. To build my non-profit and assist at-risk students in attaining more than they ever believed and stop the education to prison pipeline. My life has always been about service. We don't often think mothers or educators are a service field, but we shape our youth's minds and support them in their educational and personal goals. As a single mother, I learned patience, loved someone unconditionally, lifted up my son and community, and taught and guided. Imagine the infinite possibilities of helping others when you support a single mother in her goals.

Education is the equalizer of economic disparity. For many years, I believed that statement. I dedicated my life to raising each group of students through the community college doors and later the university where I work. Education, especially higher education, is the medium in opening opportunities. Unfortunately, the pandemic has made it even more difficult for students from low-socioeconomic backgrounds to obtain a degree or further their education. The pandemic revealed how divided, underprepared, and underdeveloped, our educational systems are in the United States. From our youngest students to our students in higher educational institutes, we find that the current education course needs to be reinvented. After viewing the division between the have and the have-nots, my passion for equity amongst students called me to continue my education to learn how to develop equitable systems. Our students need assistance in the attainment of their educational goals. As a country, we need to refocus on educating our citizens to grow our creative power. As we grow our academic and problem solving skills, we will find the ability to grow our most vulnerable communities. Only through the reconstruction of archaic institutions will we achieve space for the development of social justice. With the assistance of funding my own education and achieving my doctorate in human and organizational psychology, as a practitioner, I plan to work with educational institutions, industries, and non-profit organizations to build connections and solve the disconnect in education. Developing my own nonprofit, which works with students from pre-Kinder to university, develops their current and future abilities. The non-profit would also work with teachers to grow and develop their knowledge and help them attain resources such as funding. The many facets of the non-profit will help grow low-economic communities to attain access to an equitable education. Working with the community, education, and industry leaders will develop a well-rounded plan to bring equity to those who feel disenfranchised. We will build opportunities together for a brighter future.