I have demonstrated my leadership capabilities by advocating for myself and others. In addition to becoming a club leader, student leader, student council chair, orientation leader, and more within my university. Furthermore, I give back to the communities I am a part of--such as the Governor's Committee on Scholastic Achievement (GCSA) where I am an alumnus and Alumni Council Chair. I created a presentation with resources the current GCSA students can use to pay for their tuition, find a job, and learn more about my university. I continue to help my community whenever possible; whether asked personally, through a help wanted invite, or other. I want to give people the opportunities I had, wished I had at their age/ stage of life, or meet their needs; desire to help people like myself, friends, family, and anyone who needs help. I hope to gain the skills need to become a well-balanced leader. I want to become a CEO of my own company one day and I would need several skills that a leader has in order to not only be the head of operations. But someone my employees could rely on and seek guidance from. Skills such as public speaking, delegation, coaching, and strong strategic skills on a larger scalable team. These are a few of the skills I want to improve upon. Regarding the skills of a CEO, I would need to work on innovation, business ethics/ strategy/ culture, company transparency, and company finances. Moreover, I would have to work on decision-making on a larger scale; dependent on company growth/ size. I am always looking to improve my leadership skills because I want to be a well-balanced person with the capabilities of a team player and an individual; the ability to stand alone or work with others in a way that continues to process responsibilities smoothly. Though, I believe I am at a good place right now--I know that there is something that I can do to learn more or become a better version of myself. This is how I transitioned from a club secretary and social media manager to a student council chair with four student positions. Now I am a welcome leader and orientation leader. Outside of school, I assist my old communities and local communities. For example, the community garden in Lower East Side. As well as my old high school; provided information on scholarships and other valuable student resources.

A project I was passionate about and still want to pursue comes from a hackathon project I worked on called "Give Food, Get Food." This project allowed people who may face food insecurities and homelessness to find free food within their local city/ neighborhood. There were additional resources like buy one get one free, but my teammate and I focused primarily on free food for people in need. We wanted to contribute to sustainable practices by finding resources that already existed. Such as "Too Good To Go", an app that shows every restaurant and store nearby who contributes to sustainability by giving free meals or groceries at the end of the night; when no one is buying food anymore/ closing time. Instead of dumping the "unwanted" food into the growing landfill; which would create more climate issues later on and contribute to food waste--approximately 130 billion meals wasted. Other features in our project included soup kitchens, meal drop-offs, and community centers that gave out free meals/ groceries. I plan to make an app that makes it easier for both parties; food donations and food collection. I want to build an app that is easy to use and has every resource possible for approximately the size of the sampled population; if its used in NYC then there should be resources for up to 18 million people--it's not realistic, however, there should be enough food for the number of users I have interacting with my app. This is something I need to track. Food is universal, and we all need it. This is why I am passionate about helping people find free food. Even at my university, I have listed all of the free food resources and affordable food resources nearby; within my university, and around the general metropolitan area. Working in or rather with technology inspires me to make knowledge more accessible; knowledge of resources, and how to obtain them when you don't know where to look. Though, knowledge in general is quite powerful and something I try to make accessible to others; additional resources like scholarships, help, health, etc. I want to help other people through the use of technology--the use of technology can help me help others remotely on a massive scale; nationwide--starting with my metropolitan area. I would also have to look at the legal side of things and convince larger corporations into contributing to this app; instead of dumping food. Possibly employing people to pick up the food and "lift the load off" the company; giving the company a "deal" by covering bases that they don't care about. Meaning, they dump food because they don't care and consider it a waste of time to give it away for free--I would convince them that once the end of day comes the food would be handled and taken by my employees; making it easier on the company and making them seem like amazing donors. For example, Dunkin' Donuts throws away all of their food at the end of the day. While Starbucks gives their food away to local centers at the end of the day. If every company gave food away, the rate of starvation and gas emissions would decrease. Starbucks takes time after work to wait, manage, and donate food. Dunkin does not. My app would show this transparency: highlighting donors and sustainability, food resources on a map, tracking emissions, educating people, and more. This could help companies meet the changing demand and culture; possibly appealing to the masses even when they do not necessarily care. But that doesn't matter to me, the food does.

Some of the goals I have for my future are created within a specific timeframe like a month, year, the next few decades, or for the rest of my life. My academic goals are both generalized and specific to what I would like to achieve in the long run compared to what I would like right now. For example, my main goal is to graduate with honors and a 4.0 GPA; I currently have a 3.889 and I want to have most if not all A's in my courses. If I were to list everything I would want to achieve academically, besides what I mentioned, it would be: apply to internships and get accepted--like Google, continue UX & UI design, learn more coding languages, explore more tech, join more clubs, and join a sports team. So far, I have joined many clubs, have learned a few coding languages, made a website portfolio, joined figure skating, I plan to continue weightlifting, and I plan to put in an internship for Google soon. A few goals I have for my career are becoming an entrepreneur and CEO of my own business, owning multiple businesses and institutions, learning multiple languages, and being completely fluent in these languages. Anything else I may want will most likely come later when I've achieved all of these things. So far, I am learning more about businesses, contracts, and what it takes to run a business by yourself. I also know a few languages and I am building my fluency as time goes on. My personal goals relate to my academic and career goals, as well as my hobbies. Some of these goals are photographing more portraits and hanging out with other photographers, traveling and connecting with others, trying new things, helping my community, and becoming well-balanced.

I have demonstrated leadership in my community, family, and school life through listening, actively doing my part, and being strong while being comprehensive. Having these forms of intelligent leading has not only gained me insight into my own beliefs and actions, but they have helped me understand the same ideology for others. An example of being a leader in my community is my recent volunteer work with Citymeals on Wheels, where I made cards for seniors in NYC. An example of being a leader in my family is giving good advice and leading my family to safety from danger. Lastly, being a leader in school was helping others find common ground or being open-minded. Leadership, in my opinion, is being the best leader you can be given the obstacles and circumstances that may be in your way. This is best done by always trying your best and doing the right thing through your strategic plan to reach your vision; critical thinking plays an important role here. This is where being a responsible and dependable person who has excellent means of communicating comes in; without being an open-minded, honest, self-aware, and flexible person you will not be able to reach your vision. Being able to form a vision and stick to every aspect of it, is a difficult task; a task that if reached is an inspirational and motivational feat. This is something that others can follow with respect to the steps you had taken to reach your goal. Which is a prime example of why many leaders are known for leading by example. Being a leader is important to me because I have been in situations where I wished someone could have shown me what to do and supported me in relation to new environments or goals; seeking inspiration or a support system. A leader often helps others who have been in a similar situation, they themselves have been in, and even though a leader is not a savior they can help people more often than not; a means of doing good for others. I know many people who have been negatively impacted either by an individual or institution, which left them feeling helpless, stressed, or afraid to defend themselves; no one to turn to and no one to help in these unfortunate circumstances. This is why I am a leader.

I stay true to myself by allowing myself to be me no matter what the situation is, where I am, or who is around me. Whatever "me" a person sees or gets to know is based on what I want, what I am doing, and what I need. I won't bend to people's perspectives of me or what they desire me to do if it's not in my best interest; what others want or think could lead a person astray of their truest potential. I think if what someone else wants is not in the best interest of the person they're "helping" then they aren't truly helping. This is why I want to always be authentically me. If that means I'm cold and calculated at school, fun and energetic with friends, or quiet around strangers--it's all still me being me within that moment. People are complicated creatures that sometimes try to impress one another by faking/ pretending to be something they aren't--this is what makes them lose themselves; their identity when they fake/ pretend for too long. Trying to impress others or copying people you like is not inherently bad, but if you can't identify anything you truly like or what you do in your free time that wasn't created for someone else, then why are you doing it? If you love singing, why stop if it makes you happy? If you want to be a writer, why not be? Why hide the you that you love and care about? It doesn't matter what others say or think if it's in a negative connotation--as long as what you're doing isn't hurting anyone, including yourself, you should do it; if you're bad at what you love, just remember there's always room for improvement.

The best way to live a long healthy life is to take care of yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally. This can only be achieved by being self-aware. When you are self-aware you gain a better understanding of yourself, your needs, how you perceive things, and how to respond to others. Knowing these things will help you have a life with less stress, better communication, more friends/ allies, better health, and boundaries. When you are self-aware, you are able to understand something is wrong within a situation, a possible cause, and how it has affected the people within the situation; you are taking a step back and asking yourself to observe, investigate, and understand. Having this ability will help you explain to your doctor how, when, where, and what possibly made you sick. It will allow you to think back on who you used to be, and change those behaviors in order to become a better you in the future. It will remind you that there are two repeating factors in everyone's life, life is short-lived and kindness is a short stick. In other words, every day is a new day, a day you can fix your past mistakes, a day you can breathe and be with the people you love--every day you wake up is a day you can live up, be kind, and do right for yourself and possibly others.

Playlist: Timeline Genre: Alt Artist: Anr Day Tmw 1. New Soul - Yael Naim 2. Manic Monday - The Bangles 3. Cranes in the Sky - Solange 4. Work - Jon Vinyl 5. Just a Cloud Away - Pharrell Williams 6. Return of the Mack - Mark Morrison or Confident - Ace Hood 7. Successful - Ariana Grande

My dream life looks like an enterprise that supports my community by giving jobs, housing, and food to people who need it while pushing humanity into a new era of technology. I want to build an industry from the ground up and allow a bigger picture ideal rather than focusing on minimal things; which often prevent us as people from growing. An example would be acquiring a job while homeless and allowing the skills you acquired to actually be used. I want to create an industry that can create life-saving medical technology, environment helping technology, entertainment devices, powerful vehicles, software, and anything in between. I want to hire skilled people without limiting them due to past grievances, current life situations, and/ or other things that typically prevent people from getting a job. I want to do more for myself and others; I want to create a better livable future where no one is hungry, homeless, or ill.

I would say my favorite scientific discovery would have to be vaccines, cures, and advanced medical knowledge that is still growing today. Having these things has killed off many deadly diseases, bacterial infections, cancers, and so on. I believe this is one of our greatest achievements as humans who had to watch plagues, gangrene, cancerous tumors, and other highly transmittable illnesses take our loved ones within the last 500 years. That's roughly five mothers and families away from today, meaning one's great great great great grandmother all the way to their current grandmother was able to see both, the lack of medical knowledge and know-how that killed off many people and the medical shifts that began to save lives. Without the advances we have today, no one would make it past the age of 25 - 32, and I, personally, would have succumbed to Scarlet Fever; dying as a child. Luckily I was born in an era where vaccines, cures, and medical advancements could save me. I'm now an adult who lived past the age of most Scarlet Fever infectees; which is an interesting and odd thing to say or know. I suppose this is why I am interested in helping the medical field.

I think the first thing we should do sociologically is to normalize mental health and remind people that everyone has a brain, emotions, and perspective. This perspective is how one views themselves, their actions, their world, and their peers. Once people truly acknowledge that, like their body wounds and injury can occur, then people will begin to respect their brain, as well as others' brains. The reason I say this is due to the fact that many people have openly stated, "[the person's pain] is not that bad" or "[they're] being dramatic and [doing something odd or dangerous] for attention." and they've even implied that a person with a mental illness has "issues" which demonizes them and allows people to treat them poorly socially; at work, home, school, etc. I believe educating people on mental health, mental illness, and mental disabilities would help change the scoop of social outcasting and public breakdowns; I would also hope that physical disabilities be taught in order to prevent unnecessary commentary on an individual who cannot control how they look, move, or live. I have met many people who do not understand mental health and if they cannot understand something they have, then they cannot understand mental illnesses nor disabilities. This will lead to larger issues like policies and laws against the safety and sanity of most people; we've already seen this occur in schools when they "allow" a break that barely lasts a day or week, along with the demand they have for a ridiculous amount of work by a ridiculous time. Within the last one hundred years, we've seen the Willowbrook Case and a slow change to protect disabled people. Yet, disabilities are still taboo, frowned on by many people, and are seen as "wrong" much like its counterpart, mental health.

There were a lot of firsts for these pictures: first time outside of New York, NY; my hometown. First time on a plane; which I loved and I want a pilot license now. First time in the Dominican Republic and I want to go back sometime soon. My family and I met our guide and hiked up several miles through a few mountains, to make our way down into a few massive caves. Our guide showed us wild animals, which he and I moved closer to while my family moved farther away; it was funny and new to me.

A quote that stands out to me is from Will Smith when he said, "Stop letting people who do so little for you control so much of your mind, feelings, and emotions." I use what he said as a reminder to myself to not let anyone, no matter who they are, bring me down. This quote means a lot to me because I was constantly bombarded and bullied with negative comments and reinforcement; for anything I did or said. I was called horrible names because these names would "help me change my lifestyle for the better", "I was acting like it therefore I was", and anything else these bullies could come up with as excuses for treating me as less than a person for over seven years; these people called themselves my family or friends but called me slurs and hateful words. As a kid hearing, all these hurtful things growing up gave me low self-esteem and destroyed any confidence I had. Which sucked because I felt as though I was nothing and was constantly depressed because the feeling of 'never being good enough' was always in my mind; placed there by other people who never really had good intentions for me. I was reminded that my pain was nothing compared to others and that I was always in the wrong for things I could barely control. Then when I was around fourteen I began weightlifting and I focused on my mental and physical health--I decided that only I can really protect and take care of myself, that the only person that truly cares about your wellbeing, your existence, and life is you. I took everything from then on with a grain of salt--even when a person was in my face about something, I chose to ignore it and have a better day; I may have some setbacks but overall this is my life and I'm going to live it. This thought process has helped me a lot because I no longer care about what anyone thinks or says; I will stand up for myself, set boundaries, and let other people know when they've crossed a line--if they don't like it then they can exit my life. I was not put on this Earth, fighting the battles I've fought, to be put down by anyone. #sorrynotsorry I won't stop living my best life.

One of my favorite scientists is Stephen Hawking, who discovered the origins of the universe/ the big bang theory, gravitational and spacetime singularities, blackholes and blackhole radiation, the possibility of extraterrestrial life forms, and much more. Another is Bill Nye, who reminded me that failure is a factor in all of life, but facing failure and determining its role in my life will show whether my choices and actions were worth the things I did to get there; for example, if I do everything in my power for a good grade then get one bad grade, I can either not let it affect me and push on or let it ruin me and my grade--if I pick the wrong choice all my prior efforts would mean nothing. Both are intelligent scientifically determined men who have compassion and a thirst for knowledge. I feel as though I am similar.

There have been many adversities I have overcome since I have been a young mixed disabled kid. All of which has shaped my ideology and how I perceive the world today. One of the most recent disadvantages I had was when I first integrated into my community college. It was my first semester and I met a professor who was biased spiteful and known around the community for being disrespectful toward students. However, I wasn't aware of this because I was new and did not have the resources nor connections that I do now; with my community. I also needed her class for my major which was general engineering at the time, knowing this caused me to, unfortunately, take her class. I did some research and found her rate my professor grade as 1.5 out of 5 and, unfortunately again, she was the only professor in this course for several classes; the other courses said, staff. Meaning this class repeated on different days and times but the professor was always her; she had roughly five to eight or more classes--I found this out while taking her course. On the first day, she made jokes about bombs and told everyone she had tenureship--the student next to me took out his laptop and started changing her class; that should have been my first red flag. The first few weeks started alright and then gradually became worse and worse until I felt like I was just "toughing it out" like other issues in my life. I had discussed with this professor my disability and accommodates; she helped me one time and dismissed me every other time which is illegal. She verbally bullied me, damaged my GPA every chance she got and tried to destroy my reputation as a student. Here are a few things she would do to punish me. She took points off my grade for "a messy workspace" even though my space was clean; my peers weren't yet I was punished. She belittled and screamed at me in front of the entire class because I was "on my phone" despite the class being over more than five minutes ago, and me allowing another student to use my scientific calculator to finish their classwork. I told her she wasn't accommodating me and she told me I didn't tell her what I needed because I didn't give her a piece of paper that said "give me my test accommodations." Therefore, in her eyes, I did not need my accommodations. Ironically, she has several emails, since the semester started, stating what my accommodations are and that I need them 24/7. There is much more, but to summarize she bullied me, belittled me, and mocked my disability. I told many people about what she was doing, but it fell on the deaf ears of the dean and her higher-ups; I showed them a lot of proof of her incompetence and over twenty complaints she has received from other students. Yet, no action was taken against her; she knew the higher-ups and somehow had power within both the science and engineering department. This encouraged me to change my major and avoid her toxicity. This experience has contributed to deciding I will never be a professor like her because I will love my job and I will treat my students with respect. Students aren't meant to be miserable and suffer in school--if anything should be difficult in college, it should be the honor classes; not the professors. I will continue to fight for students' rights, educate other students on how to protect themselves, and I will continue to advocate for my different communities; mix race, disabled, female, etc. I didn't deserve the disrespect I received and neither do other students.

A legacy to me means something positive that was created for oneself and their community, this thing created is meant to live on past several generations, helping all of which need it even long after the creator and their family is gone. To have a legacy means to have money or other personal property or something given from an ancestor to their predecessor and to their predecessor until the end of their bloodline. I think there are different forms of legacies that people can deem valuable. For example, celebrity children are deemed valuable in two senses. One is their DNA and the other is their wealth; money, properties, investments. Although, wealth can be defined in other senses as well, like freedom, happiness, or living on one's own terms. In other words wealth much like legacy is subjective. The legacy I want to leave behind is one that is beneficial to my kinship and community. I want my family to benefit from my wealth and power in order to live a comfortable life without fearing debt or consequences out of their control. I would also leave behind an industry that can last on its own--it would help the community/ society, public property and issue, be an industry for advocacy and have transparency.

I want to continue my pursuit of higher education because of many reasons, such as personal value/ desire/ need/ belief, economic stance/ growth, higher job satisfaction, and better employment benefits, and more advanced opportunities based on my job/ industry. The extracurricular activities I am participating in are Community College Transfer Club-NCD, Computer Programming Club and ACM-W, CUNY Coalition for Students with Disabilities (CCSD), Fine Arts Society, Google Mentoring (GCSA), Italian Club, Photo Club, Poly Gaming Network, SPS Sports Business Society, SPS Student Association for Applied Studies (SAAS), The National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS) Honor Society, Weight-lifting, and Writer's Guild Club. I also recently joined several other discord chats and extracurricular groups--I am working toward being a member soon. My current passions have always been my passions since I was a kid; art and science. I have focused primarily on digital art and learning multiple coding languages because I want to advance in my career as a coder but I also want to use what I learn to create things I enjoy like animations, video games, and apps that I believe will help my community. I want to use my career to build onto my goal as a kid, which was being an artist, inventor, and scientist. I have achieved some of what I desire and I will continue in everything I need to, to finish my dream and become what I want to.

I think it's important for people to engage in their communities because the people in your community can help you and vice versa. They have ideas, resources, assistance, and more--similar to yourself. Sharing information and creating a bond that will last for years is more valuable than being alone by oneself. One can only go so far by themself. For my community, I have been an advocate for myself and others, I participated in many events since I was twelve, and I often help my neighbors. I see my community as all the environment that I am a part of--whether it be school, my neighborhood, my friends and their families, my family, my city, and so forth. I plan to help all aspects of my community through the technological field. I will provide scholarships for students in public schools, immigrants, low-income, first-second generation students. I will provide a fund for the public schools I attended, give discounts for my technology, I will try to close the gap between private and public goods, I will help change policy and law when it goes against natural order/environmental issues, and much more based on my beliefs/ opinion on what needs to be done to protect people whose rights may be violated by corporate/ economic and private interest.

An important experience that happened in my life was graduating from my childhood schools, then seeing them get torn down and forgotten. It was heartbreaking and it made me realize many things about the American government and how they view certain aspects of society. The American government often shuts down public schools when deemed "too small" to keep open or if the school was graded poorly by the Department of Education (DOE); despite giving small aid to the schools to fix the issues in the first place. As seen when the playground of my elementary was fixed after gentrification occurred a few blocks away. This playground was old and a bit broken, only updated after my mother was an adult and had me, yet it was the same playground for more than twenty years. No one changed nor fixed it for twenty more years until richer people began to move into the neighborhood. Suddenly gentrification took hold of all damaged public property and fixed it. This is one of the many reasons I dislike what is occurring within the government, who allows and idolizes private schooling by shifting law and policy in favor of the rich and coping with the desire for new, expensive, shiny things as the norm. This "norm" was specialized only for a selected few. As seen in private schooling when it restricts students from an impoverished background from entering an educational institution; due to their location or class status. The idea of 'one cannot afford it so one should not have it' is seen quite drastically when in the states, like here in New York City where gentrification and zoning are conducted by our government and the rich shareholders being instated; there are 'allowances' of lower-income housing, where the rent is slowly increased until the individual must leave. I would say there is nothing wrong with being wealthy or living where ever you desire. Although, purposely settling into a poor neighborhood and pushing out the people who lived there for decades is morally wrong; this could erase history, increase homelessness, and demolish lives. Not only is it wrong for the wealthy to give what they deemed 'unworthy land' to the poorer community, but trying to take it back after generations live there is beyond immoral. The issue here, to summarize, is the government prioritizes the erasing of the impoverished; in need. It is why public schools shut down and disappear, why people who lived in their apartment for fifty years are suddenly relocated, it's why people in need are ignored or struggle to get more help from the government, and it's why people can't find common ground and understand each other. It is why I am an activist and I speak out against these things; I speak for myself, my community, and the world that struggles to understand our perspective. We see what is being done, and we know that it is deliberate. Like how an unhealthy cheap fried fast food restaurant is always close to housing complexes, or how an individual knows they are entering a wealthier neighborhood by seeing expensive restaurants they never heard of before. Even simple things like looking at the sidewalk as you enter a poorer or wealthier neighborhood will show you who is prioritized over whom. If we want to be equal in society, we have to start by stopping the segregation of classes and opportunities; allowing all people to be equal with no advantage, just fairness. Abolish forced public school residency zoning and allow optional locations, properly fund public schools, and stop unnecessary (DOE) testing.

Growing up with a disability was interesting because I was born with one but I developed another due to outside influence. I was born with a learning disability and I struggled with understanding certain things in school--I was able to find resources to help me learn what I was confused by. When I received help, I began to catch on quickly and my teachers soon thought, I may no longer need my resources like IEP; because I received A's. Which was interesting but shocking--I loved my science and math classes because I had a good environment which helped me thrive and succeed; which is why I had great grades--I work better when the people I'm surrounded by, are nicer. This is why I decided to study in a scientific or mathematic field--I first chose to study in the engineering field, but I have narrowed it down to computer science generalized and cybersecurity; but I hope to still dabble in engineering, like robotics. The reason I say I was born with one disability and I developed the other, is due to my visual impairment. I learned I was disabled in elementary, and ironically, when I was in elementary I was brutally injured--during recess a fastball flew right into my eye socket, it hit me extremely hard to the point that it was holding itself within my face; when I went to the nurse I had to physically pull it out of my face. It left a massive red mark around my eye, and since then my vision has gotten worse--I wear distance glasses and I have roughly 20/50 vision; my left eye is extremely strained from trying to support my injured right eye. My goals for the future are to graduate college with a master's degree and start my own scientific and technological based industry, which would create devices that help people like myself--I would hope to make medical-based devices that help doctors fix patients physical issues with precision, devices that can save patients lives, and much more. I would also like for my industry to make other devices like entertainment devices, travel devices, house-hold appliances.

I began playing chess in elementary, with one of my favorite teachers, who was very kind to me; he catered to my learning disability. I enjoyed playing chess often and challenged others; I often won and enjoyed learning or "outsmarting" others. I learned to adapt to the unseen consequences of my own choices, figure out the next step of my opponents by thinking at least two steps ahead, and knowing the moveable points of all chess pieces. I often protected my pieces, in order to overturn my opponent's king, or at least have a pawn make it across the board for another queen. Although, chess much like life, has cause and effects, consequences, and learning experiences. Much like the quote written above, in chess we learn by helping one another as well as ourselves, we find value in who we surround ourselves and how we go about things in life, we learn to think ahead or think critically, and lastly, we learn to try our best even when the unexpected occurs. We learn more every day and we grow from our past. Personally, I have many life-long goals that I wish to achieve one day. But two of the ones I think are the most important are graduating with a Master's degree in Computer Science, and becoming an entrepreneur for my scientific and technological based industry. This industry would make devices for entertainment, travel, and medical support. I believe I can achieve these goals because of my experience with chess--which has changed my opinion on life. I perceived certain things in my life to be hardships--it made me feel like a disposable pawn; which most players discard while playing chess. But the pawn has the ability to become a queen--pawns never move back and in doing so, it helps it evolve. If I am like a pawn then the further I move forward, the closer I will get to becoming the queen--not only is she the most valuable piece but she can also do anything she pleases; with little limitation. This is what I hope to one day be--my goal is to be a queen.