One quiet Saturday morning, I watched my mother trace her finger slowly down a financial statement, pausing at terms like "capital gains" and "market volatility" as if they were written in another language. She wanted to take charge of her finances, yet the language of investing seemed like an impenetrable wall. That image has stayed with me through every finance class and every professional role since. Getting here wasn't simple. As a first-generation college student, I internalized for a long time that finance wasn't for people like me. Teaching and nursing felt like the "safe," stable, and, if I'm honest, more socially accepted for women. Investment banking, asset management, deals advisory felt like spaces I had to earn permission to enter. That changed when I secured a summer internship at William Blair through the FORWARD 2026 program for first-generation low-income students. Staring at the acceptance email, I realized my background could be a strength. I was capable of being in this room, and I wanted to help open that room to others. In the meantime, the work closest to my heart has been as a Transaction Coordinator at a real estate firm. Every file represents a family at one of the most financially consequential moments of their lives. My job often entails reassuring those who are underprepared and overwhelmed. I've learned that meeting clients where they actually are, not where the system expects them to be, is the foundation of every good financial relationship. Whether explaining a contract to a first-time buyer or helping a seller understand net proceeds, that work taught me that financial planning is based in communication rather than excel and documents. The women who have shaped that understanding most directly are the ones I've met through the Society of Women in Business (SWB) and the Women in Finance Academy (WIFA) at Gies. Through SWB, I participated in a roundtable with Laura Deutscher, a finance professional who built her entire career without a single female mentor or role model in her field. Hearing her describe navigating an industry that wasn't built for her — and doing it anyway — made the path feel more possible than I'd imagined. Through WIFA, I encountered Sheena Allen, founder of CapWay and the youngest woman in the U.S. to own and operate a digital bank. Her TEDx talk, "How to Bring Humanity Back to Finances," names exactly what I believe: that financial services must be rebuilt around people. Allen grew up in the poorest state in the country, watched communities be left outside the traditional banking system, and decided to do something about it. That's the throughline I want in my own career. What struck me in both of these women wasn't just their success — it was that they achieved it through forging their own paths without anyone ahead of them clearing the way. I don't want the next generation of women in finance to feel that alone. I'm actively seeking deeper involvement in both SWB and WIFA through leadership, mentorship, and programming, because I know firsthand how much it matters to see someone who looks like you already in the room. My mother is still learning how to read a financial statement. I'm learning how to change the system that excluded her in the first place.