My name is Rodolfo de la O, and I am pursuing a Master’s in Information Security Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University. I have a strong passion for cybersecurity and protecting people. I'm always looking for new opportunities and trying to be better than I was. My life aspirations not only involve wanting to be one of the best in my field, but also I want to be someone people look up to based on my principles and values, I want to make a change that will impact people's lives directly. I've been part of many communities throughout my life, but I am mainly involved by doing constant acts of kindness and expecting nothing from them. In the places I've lived people know that I am someone who focuses on his goals, while still reading what my city needs and what the concerns of the people that surround me. For me one of my main accomplishments has been being able to live in Germany for a year, arriving without being able to speak the language, after one year I immersed myself so much into the culture that I was able to speak German and feel part of the culture and the community even though it was so different from everything I knew. Another key accomplishment for me was during the last semester of undergrad, my friends and I decided to participate in a national competition, the first achievement was that we got selected to participate, 20 teams out of 300 that applied, and our second achievement was winning the competition, my friends and I demonstrated to ourselves that we are capable of achieving big things regardless of our background, our cybersecurity solution using AI was the best and helped us represent our university and our selves. Other accomplishments but less important, are the internships I've been able to land, I feel like both my internship at Coca-Cola and Pwc, are proof that I've been preparing myself to be one of these best and that I put my time and effort to get the opportunities I want without giving up. Money has always been a complicated situation in my house, and for the first time I took the risk to get a loan so I'm not affecting my parents anymore, the money that I save by paying down my student loan will help not only live a more decent life, but it's going to help me help other people, as I said before, my goal is not only professional, and I dream about helping my community, we know time and money is necessary to change things, by receiving this money I can focus on helping my community more by offering free courses on a specific topic so young kids avoid the burden of having to think about what they want to do in life versus what they need to do because they need to help at home, this was something that haunted me for many years, and I want to help young kids not feel that same way, this money will also let me help my own family, my parents are the most important bond that I have and I want nothing but to help them retire and live in peace. Paying down my student loan will not only bring me closer to my long-term goal of becoming a leader in the field of cybersecurity while making meaningful contributions to both my career and community, but also, it will bring peace to my community, to me, and to the ones I love.

Rodolfo de la O is someone who has always strived to be the best, I get inspiration by football players, revolutionary leaders, and my personal relationships. What I pursue in my educational path is to learn with the best and demonstrate to myself and others, that I belong in a place like Carnegie Mellon, where I currently study my Master's degree, I know I'm not the best, but every day I try to be one of the best by putting the necessary effort and the steps that others are not willing to take, surrounding myself with people who have goals like me or are better than me, is a motivation to keep pushing. I am preparing myself in the cybersecurity field, I want to be an international figure in this sector. Most of the time I try to focus on networking with cybersecurity experts so I can get as much experience as possible. My community involvement has been limited due to my economic situation along the years, my parents have always given me all the possible opportunities for me to be great, and I have focused on it, but that doesn't mean I am unaware my community, I was raised in Lerma, Mexico State, we often experienced power outages, our streets keep flooding every rainy season, our roads are still uneven, and we still lack efficient and safe public transportation. That is the reality that thousands of people face every day, for me, considering the political situation in Mexico, it is not optimal to pursue a political career, but I can do is give people the necessary means they deserve. When the state is not doing its part some of us still want to step up and help others, starting by my family, and to my neighborhood, and so on. My efforts have given me the opportunity to study abroad multiple times with great high schools and universities, like Willie-Graph Gymnasium in Germany or Kyoto University in Japan. I started a cybersecurity group during my undergrad, leading to a 4th place finish in our first international competition, and a 1st Place in our last. I also consider great accomplishments being able to land great scholarships and internships, for example, I spent one year as a Cybersecurity OT Intern at Coca-Cola FEMSA. Me studying this Master's means hope for my city and my people, with the money saved not only will I be able to pay my loan faster, but to help my community faster, and have a bigger impact as well. It is not fair that just because I have a blue passport, I get opportunities that others don't. My parents and my community didn't have that gift; but I know life has given me this gift and this opportunity so I can prove myself and others that I am capable, that I am one of the best, and to make my parents and my community proud, and knowing that helping others is part of my path, I believe that knowledge should always be shared since it's one of the few things that we can give, but we can still keep. Getting this scholarship would be another gift to help me help more people along my way. Thank you so much and I will keep striving. "We must dare to invent the future" -Thomas Sankara

I've seen how money defines whether people get the opportunities they want or not, great people deserve great opportunities; My parent and I we work as a team to create a brighter future for us, I want to help my family as much as possible. After high school I saw my potential in cybersecurity, at the moment I got accepted for Masters at Carnegie Mellon University, but I cannot afford my tuition or housing, giving me this scholarship would give the opportunity to not only study and develop in the field I love, but to also change my family status, I've seen what it means in Mexico to live with money and to live without it, money gave me the opportunity to study an play sports, but without it I had to work since high school to afford opportunities. Back in the 90s my parents were looking to fulfill their American dream, they didn't succeed, but in the year 2000 I was born, we came back to Mexico, for better or for worse, things in my was in an economical way have always been complicated, form a young age I learned how the world works, how some people will treat you different if you wear expensive or cheap clothes, that if fine is only economical that fine exist only for the poor, because rich people will never suffer paying for anything. I hated learning everyday that its just a few people that will always treat you as a human no matter what, and thanks to those people, I've been able to be where I'm at, and I also what to be that persons for others. Developing my career in the U.S will give me so many opportunities, and I'm not talking about affording expensive stuff, I talk about affording to give others the things they need to become better, my parents, uncles, even strangers have helped me because they saw something in me, now, I want to live up to the expectation. If I receive this scholarship expect from me to become one of the best in my class, always looking for new opportunities to learn and become better, always grateful and with my mind and my heart determined to give to those who helped me, and to give to those wo deserve the best opportunities. I want to become a great leader, I know what it means to fight for you opportunities and I want to keep fighting, but please help me make this battle easier, winning, would mean a win for all the children who didn't got an opportunity.