My entire upbringing has been marked by family, friends, and teachers alike encouraging me to attend college. After immigrating from Argentina to the United States, my parents sowed seeds of knowledge in my mind by instilling a love of reading. Outside of school, I spent large swaths of time at my local library, a space I enjoyed as my own to study and devour my favorite topics-like horror stories and female-driven novels. Given their wavering grasp on English, it was the library that proved crucial. If it weren’t for Homework Club and summer reading programs, I would have never been able to master English to a native level. In integrating the value of these resources, I plan to continue my education via a Master’s in Library and Information Science, becoming a Librarian so I can represent my Hispanic community and advocate for their needs and life goals. Only 7% of librarians nationwide represent the Latino community, compared to the roughly 80% who are white. This tremendous gap must be filled in order for the ever-growing minority population to obtain linguistic and cultural access to the utilities of public library systems. In fact, one of the reasons I selected San Jose State University’s MLIS program is because they offer two spaces catered towards Hispanic students: Reforma and First-Generation Student group. As the first in my family to enroll in a Graduate program in the United States, the process has been confusing and disheartening to navigate alone. As a member of both of these groups, I have found solidarity with others and support through a well-established campus-wide network. Reforma, in particular, connects students committed to working in the library space with Spanish-speaking communities. As a current part-time Page for the San Jose Public Library, I have engaged with many Spanish-speaking patrons, guiding them through the process of signing up for library cards, promoting ESL classes, organizing resume/job/career sessions, and building awareness of both low-income resources and adult literacy programs. The more I engage my Spanish abilities in supporting our Latino patrons, the greater my confidence as a public servant has grown, igniting a fire within me to propel my path toward a graduate degree. To secure my efforts towards successfully advocating for the Latino community, I aim to be well versed in accessible programs by implementing and managing resources that helps my people receive necessary information towards reaching their goals. With the help of the Barbara J. DeVaney Memorial Scholarship, I can master these skills so as to manifest an expansion of the library’s safety net across San Jose’s entire infrastructure, ensuring that I utilize my platform to advocate for the protection of resources adhering to Hispanic library patrons.

The library serves as a safe haven for people from all backgrounds. With resources available ranging from toddler story times all the way to adult media literacy courses, it’s guaranteed that there is a program for just about anyone to enjoy. As someone who spent plenty of time growing up in libraries, I always knew I wanted to pursue a career in this field. When my family first immigrated to the United States, we would always utilize the resources our library provided us, which helped me to excel in mastering English. Since I've enrolled in the Masters of Library and Information Science program at San Jose State University, I’ve had the pleasure of exploring different pathways that could lead me to a fulfilling career. One of the first resources I took advantage of after I accepted my admittance into the MLIS program was researching the varying student organizations being offered through iSchool. I attended several new student meetings such as the Special Libraries Student Chapter, Reforma(Latinx student org), and the First Generation chapter. Interacting with current students, alumni and faculty members to learn about their career journies was impactful. One takeaway from Reforma’s meetings was learning about jobs within the academic librarianship space, such as working in community colleges/universities as a Student Success Coordinator. As someone whose family immigrated to the United States and had virtually no grasp of the English language, we were always pushed to take part in language courses and read as many books as possible to become better at reading, writing, and speaking. Because of my upbringing, I would love to be able to represent Latinos in this field and help to ease the confusion/uncertainties that college students have by being a Student Success Coordinator. During my time in undergrad, I started at a community college and then went on to complete my Bachelor's degree at San Jose State University. Since I have gone through that experience, I am capable of guiding students as they aim to transition into a 4-year college, especially for students who come from a first-generation background and have limited knowledge of how the college process works. I believe that I am qualified for this role not only because of my background but because I can help students achieve their academic goals and find success in their careers. For the Special Libraries Student Chapter, I was intrigued about how there are varying industries you could work with that aren’t commonly associated with librarianship. I engaged with students who were interested in being archiving and collection coordinators, medical & law librarians, digital preservationists, or even museum curators. One particular area that I am interested in is UX design. I love the intersection of graphic design and user experience, where I can help to make our online services more accessible and stress-free for our patrons. With the ever-growing range of new technologies, organizations need to continuously adapt to keep up with the demands of the community. I especially would love to emphasize ESL/Language services to our multilingual patrons so that we can provide the necessary services they need to make their lives easier and help them to learn new skills. With the range of industries and job titles that the library field has to offer, it’s evident that there is a role for people of varying walks of life and their skill sets apply everywhere. Regardless of the pathway I decide to go for, I want to work with my community by helping to advocate for resources benefitting people and helping to change their lives for the better.

Hypothyroidism. Endometriosis. On August 11, 2022 those words made up my official diagnosis. On one hand, I was relieved to finally receive a doctor’s clinical decision, but yet a vein of anger rose, a release of tension after being forced to live indefinitely with the symptoms and constantly doubting my ability to have a full and healthy life. Ever since I was a little girl, I had brewed a deep-seated and overwhelming anxiety toward doctor’s visits. Many of these providers seemed to either overlook or underestimate the symptoms I was dealing with. The emphasis, more than anything else, was always on my weight and physical appearance. My niche was that of the chubby little girl, who constantly battled all-consuming fatigue, brain fog, and body hair paralleling a thinning hairline atop the stubborn belly fat and phantom weight gain. Sure, I could afford to exercise more, but how when finding the strength to do so was near impossible? My transition into womanhood only exacerbated the issue, delivering me monthly, debilitating pain to the extent my vision would blur and my legs would lose sensation. Oh, I would be told, that’s all a normal part of being a woman! We all go through that so you just have to deal with it. Blanket statements like these were often regurgitated by the plethora of medical “professionals” across my youth. Yet, there were key moments in my life where I had to cancel plans with my friends and family, alongside missing out on job opportunities, that could not accommodate my medical condition, and this wreaked further havoc on my mental health. I truly felt I had no one in my corner and was unfortunately close to accepting my fate of this being a lifelong ordeal. This monthly routine that began the instant I hit puberty would go on until the very fated day of August 11, 2022. Yet on the day I received a responsible diagnosis, I was put on levothyroxine, a common medication for treating an underactive thyroid. Within days, I noticed a shift in my energy levels, a sensation of awakening from a long slumber. My brain fog followed suit, granting me clarity and catharsis. I seized the opportunity by tapping into my now-accessible willpower: daily walks, light weightlifting, and patience. As my thyroid was renewed, so was the mental pressure of my situation. I began pilates and yoga, buffering the movement of energy with swimming to further shift my body’s positive upswing. I felt like myself again, a person trapped in her own body who had finally found the proper key to the locks of the unknown. Although the last nine months have not proven to be a perfect transition into “normalcy”, these changes were confirmation that my fierce resolve in fighting hypothyroidism had not been in vain. The domino effect only grew as I researched the condition online, and I made to improve my state of mind and overall health. I made sure to adopt 8-10k steps daily walking routine, light weightlifting, as low-impact exercises have been proven to be the most effective in managing hypothyroidism. As the school year is nearing, I have access to my university gym, where I can continue with taking pilates, yoga, and swimming to help maintain lower stress levels. Since my diagnosis, I would read articles online, browse my local library for diet/food plans, and joined an online community to share my experience with others in hopes that someone else who was struggling to be taken seriously knew that they weren’t alone and that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

I envision myself in a library role where I work to directly provide services, such as homelessness support, career advancement sessions, ESL classes, and free wifi hotspots and laptop rentals, to help ease the burdens suffered by our community members.

The national homelessness crisis has worsened in recent years, especially in major urban regions of California. As a Bay Area local, it is not uncommon to personally encounter several people daily who are struggling to make ends meet. For many, securing safe and stable housing is almost impossible. As a result, it is the public library that has increasingly served as a crucial sanctuary for those individuals seeking both temporary shelter and care, as well as avenues towards local resources. As someone working within the public library sector and who has engaged with many struggling patrons, I have realized the importance of my role as a public servant in facilitating the needs of the homeless and other vulnerable populations within our system. In order to become a more well-rounded advocate for these groups within my field, it is essential that I obtain my Master’s degree, such that I master the necessary skills and approaches necessary for serving our community and combating the systemic factors contributing to homelessness. I became witness to this crisis starting in April 2022 when I first accepted a role as a Library Page for the San Jose Public Library system’s MLK branch in downtown San Jose. As I started to grow in my role and gained experience in the library sector and interacting with patrons, so did my awareness of a library’s status as a crucial third space within our community, encompassing all ages and backgrounds. One means of assistance is by providing homeless and mental health resources for patrons. PATH is a central partner of ours that offers a team of social workers, who can advise on job hunting, securing low-cost housing, referrals to legal services, and locating local food banks. This connection has been a pivotal one for me to promote. I recently met a young mother looking for free programs for children. She confided in me that since her husband’s passing from COVID, she became the family’s sole breadwinner, but being unhoused, she relies on the library as a safe space for her children and for accessing valuable resources, such as educational programs. I was able to connect her to PATH and help her set up contact with social workers. In that sense, my role as the library representative allowed people like her to obtain necessary aid. I believe, then, that as a future librarian, I would be able to advocate further for the protection and expansion of resources many community members rely on. This has driven me to pursue a Masters in Library and Information Science. With the Bay Area’s high cost of living, in tandem with the fallout of the pandemic and layoffs, many patrons increasingly rely on public library systems for community support, reinforcing the importance of these graduate programs in training librarians to work with both individuals and organizations. By extension naturally, my role demands a stable knowledge base in means of public resource management, with the central theme of being a champion for the homeless and mentally ill in our neighborhoods. In fact, my current Master’s program offers a course (INFO 281: Serving Homeless Patrons at the Public Library) that focuses on services provided to the homeless, the current state of homelessness, and barriers pertaining to this demographic. To become a successful advocate for these groups, I aim to be well-versed in accessible programs, and with the help of the Michael Rudometkin Memorial Scholarship, I can master my MLIS skills in the public library space to manifest an expansion of its safety net across the City of San Jose’s infrastructure.