College is the key to a better life. To me, college is just a stepping stone to ensure my family and I will have the comfort needed to continue living. It's a way for me to give back to my community and provide to those who have raised me. Money has always been tight for my family, yet they've surrendered enough resources to send me to college. Money is especially important ever since my grandpa was recently hospitalized due to a stroke. My family has been pooling money together to pay for not only expenses, but the gas money and time to let my grandma visit my grandpa everyday. As a kid, every trip passed McDonalds would always end up with them responding with "Do you have McDonalds money?" I never fully understood the sacrifices my family had to go through. So college, for me, is not only a break for them, but a way to earn enough money to end the endless "No's" whenever I asked for fast food. I aim to accomplish completing law school and work at a law firm for a comfortable life. I plan to put myself through rigorous coursework to prep myself for the next step in my life. Through college, I wish to find my community and find myself through them. To me, family is central, but being away from them forces me to find my own people without the help of anyone else. It fosters my ability to communicate and will make me more connected to myself. Overtime, I will be able to identify myself and find a group of people I can call family, while not being blood-related to them. I plan to use the time in college to learn about my culture and honor my ancestors while still preparing for my future and making friends. In the future, I will send my parents to their dream vacation. I will send them money, the same as they do whenever I ask for food, and smile to myself knowing that the cycle goes full circle. I won't let them worry whether or not we would be able to eat that week or if we could pay for the medical bills on time. I will send my little cousins to college and hope they will find themselves to be just as grateful as I am for my family and want to give back to them as me.

I want to either educate the youth and give back to the community by building its future or fighting for the present and change lives. My first choice is becoming a lawyer, someone who can help separated immigrant families or just do good in general. If my goals change, then my second option is to become a history teacher. Teaching kid about the past is essential in letting them build a sense of where they are in time and what mistakes have or haven’t been done before. Through teaching these children will learn to be more empathetic and conscious of the world as they grow up. And if I’m ambitious enough, being a lawyer that can work on cases and possibly fight for laws to be rewritten could benefit my community as well. There’s a multitude of laws that are ambiguous enough to be argued and used against the public. I want to define those rules, making it clear and obvious. My education will help my community in the long run. Whether I become a teacher or a lawyer, someone will benefit from my knowledge. Lives will and can be changed from what I have to offer after my college.

Throughout my journey in High school, joining the MHS PUSO, the Pilipinix Unified Student Organization, was one of the decisions I wish I would've done earlier. In my Sophomore year, I was initially captured by the PUSO tinikling performers and applied to shadow an officer in the next semester. I was expected to attend every officer and general meeting as well as to participate in events that we'd hold after school. Through these events, I learned just how impactful a connection, with people that share the same culture as me, could be. I'll admit that I wasn't the best at speaking my mind to a large group of people in my Sophomore year, and that I'd only do the bare minimum in participation. However, once my Junior year hit and I expressed my intention to be the publicist of PUSO, everything changed. Suddenly I found myself connecting with my officers on a deeper level, not only because I was once an Ading for the senior officers with them last year, but because they've helped me grow out of my shell. My club advisor, Mr. Lorenzana was also one of the people who encouraged me to feel comfortable with my peers and to embrace our culture together. Throughout the whole school year, I've stayed after school, the latest until 8 pm, learning tinikling and doing performances with them. Learning how to choreograph and memorize my club member's names have been a challenge that I was ready to face. And learning about my officer's individual experiences at home made me wonder how I could help them. How can I ensure that not only my family, but their families are safe as well. I decided that I wanted to help in the legal section. I want to shield them from any policies that could potentially separate their loved ones. I want to fight for their rights. I want them to know that they're legally allowed to live in the United States, just as much as me. Just as much as my entire family, who immigrated to the U.S. to ensure me and my siblings and cousins could live a better life. I want to continue this fight. This scholarship could provide something that my family still struggles with, money. I plan to become independent and find my own sources of money when I move out for college, but I wouldn't want my family to be burdened with the expense. Any step along the way is a step that counts towards my goal, for the Filipino community living in the United States.