Being in college for more than 2 years, comes with a lot of advice that is able to be passed on like choosing the right major, surrounding yourself with the right people, school resources, and time management. However if I have to choose one piece of advice I had to give to another first generation student it would be to love, learn, and use your work for a positive difference. Love your hard work, you spend your valuable and non refundable time on your essay, test, job, training, or project. Appreciate what you accomplished because you’re the first one in your family to accept this challenge and face through the obstacles of college. No one chose to pick up the weights of studying or practicing or attendance but you did. It’s very easy to get criticized for your work and what you did or didn’t do but no one is going to see those early mornings, late nights or struggles along the way but you. So care for yourself whether it’s treating you with a break or reward or reflect on yourself how far you come from and appreciate your creation of your product. Loving your work is important but building off of it and learning for the next step brings you forward. Learn the good, bad, and ugly parts of your hard work. For your future studies and work life, you're going to have highs and lows but it’s important to carry and learn from those points to use it for future moments. Elevate what went well through the process and continue them. As well as improve what didn’t work out and try something different to become successful for that next challenge. You don’t lose, you learn and the next time that moment comes, you’ll know how to encounter it and be successful. However, keep in mind, no project is ever perfect because it can always be better. With learning and building off your projects, essays, education and work, it’s important not only to use it for yourself and journey but for your community. Use your hard work for the good of your family and community to help others who face that same challenge and change the world for the better. My favorite quote came from a spiderman movie that goes by “Intelligence is not a privilege, it’s a gift. And you use it for the good of mankind”. This quote to me means using your education and skills are a gift and you use that gift to help others that don’t have those skills. Whatever you choose to do in your college journey, don’t see it only as a money opportunity but see how your work can change lives or even save them. Create new treatments for the sick, teach the young and unknown, or build the future for the good of mankind. Everyone has different abilities and it’s important to work and share those skills you have that some lack and vise versa. In the end, being a first-generation student is about more than earning a degree it’s about creating opportunities for yourself and others. Love your work, learn from every challenge, and use your education to make a positive difference in your family, community, and the world.

Being a first generation student means that I am facing a challenge of taking a path no one in my family has ever experienced. Challenges like balancing work, family responsibilities, paying for college and practicing architecture principals like learning softwares and creating models takes a lot of time and energy. Moreover, I’ve always had the pressure to be more significantly accomplished right out of high-school due to getting a private education. However, serious family issues led to me getting kicked out the house and becoming homeless and rather than going to a more prestigious university like my peers in high school, I decided to attend community college. Some family members viewed this as disappointing and a waste of time and money. Although others saw my decision as a dead end, I chose to bet on myself and build something from nothing. My plan is to obtain an associates degree at San Antonio College then transfer to a university to complete my masters degree in landscaping architecture. Moreover, I also have a dream of expanding my own company involving landscaping as a landscape architect scaling all of San Antonio and throughout Texas. I started this company through door to door sales pitches with just a little wagon and pulling my tools up and down the hot Texas summer heat. My friends saw my dedication and joined me and provided transportation to spread my business around San Antonio and learn different types of landscaping jobs, plants and experience.Through this dream, I also want to help mentor the future with partners that help me during this business process and help them become better people whether that be with family, work, or for themselves. I’ll put my best effort, given the trust my clients have in me to make their plans and dreams for their properties into a reality. At the same time as creating my company, I also attended San Antonio College for my cores and the start of my architectural endeavors. In my first year there I learned how to balance work, school and trying to discover who I am as a person. I had to learn how to navigate through college alone, manage my finances and resources to balance clashing schedules with classes and client appointments. I also joined clubs I was interested in like the gardening club and architecture society. An additional program I joined is Phi Theta Kappa honor society and my own student wellness project. Working alongside the college president this project is aimed to improve the on campus student mental health atmosphere. I also began taking architecture studios classes incorporating the discipline of time management and the design process of creating something from nothing. Now, preparing to transfer to a university, rising cost of tuition, materials and software in architecture create new challenges. This scholarship would help continue my business and architectural passion creatively and bring it fully into reality and more importantly start the next step of my dream at the university I always wanted.

My father is a strong, wise, hardworking, and confident individual. He worked for his own local landscaping company and supported his family and friends who needed the extra money when he needed help on jobs. He created family-like relationships with his clients and was always trying to complete every job quickly and effectively with no shortcuts. The thing that took away all that was his addiction towards drugs and alcohol. As his son, I saw two sides of my dad, the helping and bold man he is in his work and love for his family and dreams and the other of drinking alcohol every day and doing drugs behind his family's back and will stir an anger and physically aggressive side of him. When I was 16, I saw his addiction and bad habitats finally catch up to him. His wife (my mom) divorced him, he moved to his parent's house, couldn't see his kids, lost all his clients and tools were robbed, friendships were broken, and all he had left was nothing but a beer in his hand or a burned joint. He later went to jail, being charged with three DWI's. People say we look like brothers since he looks young at the age of 38. His name is Robert (same name as me), and people have called me "little Robert" ever since I was kid. My life now as an eighteen-year-old feels like I grown up too fast, learning lessons from my own father about what not to do and always doing the right thing. I also used to work for my dad and that is how we built our father and son relationship. I worked with him from hot sunny days to the cold winding hill country days. I developed a love for landscaping with him and he even said out of all the partners he has ever had; I was the best and his favorite. Ever since he's been gone it's like I lost a best friend and I've been with my mom and my siblings and going to school for landscaping architecture. I built my own landscaping company, same tools, same work, just a different Robert and motive. My family now compares me to my dad and how my company will just end up being robbed and destroyed. However, I remind them that I might look, do the same things as my dad, have the same name but this I will do the opposite of what he followed. My business is not just about landscaping, but also helping guys who are in their lows in life and need that boost or motivation to find themselves and limits in a hardworking manner. I also help guys who have addictions towards drugs or alcohol in my business and tell them their consequences if they continue to go down that road and tell them healthy alternatives. My family's viewing me that I'll just be another copy of my dad is not entirely correct because I do want to carry that love and hardworking and determine side of my dad but want to heal the problems he caused from his addiction and relationships he's broken. A lot of young adults are starting to drink and use drugs at an early age and develop an addiction but every time I see those items, I think about my dad and what they have done to him and his life. My dad always told me I was going to be ten times better than him, now I can see and continue to do that for my family, family, and others.

My name is Robert Rodriguez, born and raised in San Antonio, Texas and currently enrolled at San Antonio College studying architecture or more specially landscaping architecture. I am a full-time student but also at the time working and building my own landscaping and lawn care business on the side. I started my passion for landscaping when I started working with my father in his own company, South Texas Landscaping. However, during his time, he went through a tough divorce with my mother and had to move out from our family house and I had to help him out with doing yards and installations for his clients he had at the time. All with having to provide for my siblings at the time with no house to live in and stay at a hotel. My dad was his own boss and the only employee he had at the time, so I had to help him out and get whatever job we were brought to done, whether it was installing mulch in the Texas heat being 100 degrees or cutting yards in 30-degree weather. While working with him, I developed a hard-working mindset and determination to get jobs done no matter what and met many people from different career paths and international people, being the clients we worked for. With our work, we were able to afford a house for my dad and my siblings and I to live in. However, sadly my dad was an alcoholic and gotten in some trouble with DWIs and went to jail a lot making me and my siblings move back with our mother. We now moved from our old family house to a new house located in the Northeast part of San Antonio. Living with my single mom and 2 other siblings, I had to pay for school and help with bills. So, I decided to start my own landscaping business around my neighborhood and started just like every other business does, knocking on doors and selling myself. I started off slow but preserved with a bunch rejection and the Texas heat again. However, some people gave me a chance and so I showed off my work and they loved it. More people will give me a chance to cut their yards and start to get clients. However, I didn’t have transportation at the time, so I had to do the classic push everything in a wagon method but like I said earlier, I developed the mindset of having to accomplish any mission put upon me no matter what and give 110% in whatever job I had to do. Later, building my company, I was able to communicate better with strangers and develop good client relationships and upgrade my tools. I also now have many clients ranging all around town and do most of my jobs on the weekends or if needed on the week days will send one of my helpers to get the job done. Now I help other guys who struggle in finding jobs and give them jobs to help me with in my company. An example is my partner, a dad and young adult trying to find a job. He helps me with transporting my tools and helps me with whatever jobs I got and do them right and better every single time. I now balance school, part time job at Academy Sports and Outdoors, my business, hobbies and continue to help my family and volunteer for others however way I can. My business is name is Mr.R services and provide lawn mowing, edging, weeding, tree trimming and clean up services.

I'm a Lebron because of his leadership and perseverance against the hate and criticism he receives as a player to the game of basketball. To be more in depth, Lebron was the reason why I truly love the game of basketball with watching my first ever NBA game that I actually caught my attention. One day I was just at home and watching TV and then saw that the NBA finals were on at the time, so I decided to why not watch it. Lebron was playing at the time with the Cleveland Cavilers and were going against the Golden State Warriors in game seven of the NBA finals. I didn't know that at the time the Cavilers were coming back from a one to three game comeback and needed to win one more game to bring home a championship to Cleveland, who haven't won any sport titles for the past 50 years. The performance Lebron put on in that game was incredible seeing how athletic he was and with his historic game saving block. Moving forward, I would watch more NBA games and start playing basketball and now I've been playing the game for five to six years and love the game so much all because of Lebron. Moreover I would go on to watch a game of him playing against the San Antonio Spurs and was about 15 feet away from the court and I'll say he's a huge player up close. I believe Lebron is the greatest basketball player of all time (in this current time) and I know a lot of people would argue with that with voting Michael Jordan to uphold that title. However, I believe that Lebron is stronger, more athletic and all around offensive and defensive a better individual player than any other player. Thus again people would compare accomplishments but sometimes don't put the factor of how the game was different from other eras of how basketball was played. Ever era such as the; 70's, 80's, 90's and 2000's and present day have a different play of the game of basketball. Jordan's era in the 90's was more aggressive than today's game with rules being formed and fouls being called more often. Though the game has also inflated in points and has also been played faster and different types of play methods have been formed. That is why at the beginning I stated, "in this current time" because the game of basketball will continue to evolve and players will evolve with it as well. An example is the rookie Victor W. on the San Antonio spurs, a seven foot center that has the play making as a guard and can shoot any where on the court. Try to find that in the 80's or 90's. Lastly, going back to Lebron, James is the most developed and master all around player in our time and the longevity he has on the game is also an argument you can make with him playing his twenty one season coming this fall.