It was just me, an unmade bed, and a copy of Bioshock Infinite, and it was amazing. I had just moved across the country from Weston Florida to El Paso Texas at the start of the pandemic. I was given a lot of free time, and with that time I would usually stay glued to my undecorated desk drawing. Art for me had first been a form of escapism my therapist recommended to me at the age of 9, by this point art had become a personal diary that could never be decoded. While drawing I would often listen to TV shows or YouTube videos, and one of those days I remember an advertisement for this series called “Bioshock” came on, and the look of it was this game that was horror, but was stylized similar to Disney just caught my eye. I looked more into it with some footage and instantly put in my mental calendar the release date. I had an unused gift card and the night of the release I put in the PIN trembling from excitement and I purchased one of the trilogy, Bioshock Infinite. Bioshock Infinite was the first time I experienced a mature piece of media, not only in regards to the age rating but also in the way in which the world was built. When I opened the gates to the neoclassical floating city of Columbia, and that violin motif played, I was in shock at the beauty of the bobbing buildings being suspended in air by balloons and the clouds that consumed the ever-blue sky, as for the first hour I didn’t even progress the game,I exploring the rich world of this floating city. I was mesmerized by the art direction for this pastel-veiled dystopia. This world was founded on a mix of steampunk with a turn of the century Gibson girl, a gorgeous Frankstien of Mary Blair and Fritz Lang in both design and narrative. I remember laying there late at night mesmerized by this beautiful world and narrative created by the team at Irrational Games. I couldn’t help but soak in every little detail of this rich, vibrant world as I became hooked on this unconventional coming of age story, and this was the first time I had ever really understood the impact of the story a piece of media was telling. The plot presented themes of a class and race struggle in the theocracy of Columbia, and by the end as the last airship sank I was drowning in the beauty of this experience. I always was told that art could be nothing more than a hobby, and I unfortunately listened to them at some point. It wasn't until the credits rolled and the barbershop quartet cover of “God Only Knows”, as hundreds of names rolled by, I knew that I wanted to be an artist long before this experience, but I couldn’t have imagined the fact that I could ever be a part of this, and I now can’t imagine myself doing anything else with my life. I want to be an artist who helps bring these beautiful worlds and stories alive. While sitting in my classes at Pre-College I realized that art was no longer to me a form of isolationism and repression, much rather a form of expression and collaboration. During lunch, I would sit along with my friends as they shared with me their own worlds through art and I was able to build upon these creations. When we went to the Goldstein Library, I walked across a book featuring the art of Bioshock Infinite.

It was just me, an unmade bed, and a copy of Bioshock Infinite, and it was amazing. I had just moved across the country from Weston Florida to El Paso Texas at the start of the pandemic. I was given a lot of free time, and with that time I would usually stay glued to my undecorated desk drawing. Art for me had first been a form of escapism my therapist recommended to me at the age of 9, by this point art had become a personal diary that could never be decoded. While drawing I would often listen to TV shows or YouTube videos, and one of those days I remember an advertisement for this series called “Bioshock” came on, and the look of it was this game that was both horror, but was stylized similar to Disney, it just caught my eye. I looked more into it with some gameplay and instantly put in my mental calendar the release date. I had an unused gift card and the night of the release I put in the PIN trembling from excitement and I purchased one of the games of the trilogy, Bioshock Infinite. Bioshock Infinite was the first time I experienced a mature game, not only in regards to the age rating but also in the way in which the world was built. When I opened the gates to the neoclassical floating city of Columbia, and that violin motif played, I was in shock at the beauty of the bobbing buildings being suspended in air by balloons and the clouds that consumed the ever-blue sky, as for the first hour I didn’t even progress the game, just explored the life of this floating city. I was mesmerized by the art direction for this pastel-veiled dystopia. This world was founded on a style mixing steampunk with a turn of the century Gibson girl, essentially a gorgeous Frankstien’s monster of Mary Blair and Fritz Lang in both design and narrative. I remember laying there late at night mesmerized by this beautiful world and narrative created by the team at Irrational Games. I couldn’t help but soak in every little detail of this rich, vibrant world as I became hooked on this unconventional coming of age story, and this was the first time I had ever really understood the impact of the story a piece of media was telling. The plot presented themes of a class and race struggle in the theocracy of it's dystopia, and by the end as the last airship sank I was drowning in the beauty of this experience. I always was told that art could be nothing more than a hobby, and I unfortunately listened to them at some point. It wasn't until the credits rolled and the barbershop quartet cover of “God Only Knows”, as hundreds of names rolled by, I knew that I wanted to be an artist long before this experience, but I couldn’t have imagined the fact that I could ever be a part of this, and I now can’t imagine myself doing anything else with my life. I want to be an artist who helps bring these beautiful worlds and stories alive. Sitting in my classes at Pre-College, art was no longer to me a form of isolationism and repression, much rather a form of expression and collaboration. During lunch, I eat with my friends as they shared with me their own worlds through art and I was able to build upon these creations. When we went to the Goldstein Library, I walked across a book, the art of Bioshock Infinite.

Did you know that in the 2024 Presidential Election in the state of Texa, less than half of all people of eligible voting age cast a ballot. That is the dilemma that leads to our state’s power which is so radically disconnected from the needs of the average Texan. I spent much of my adolescence on the phone ensuring that insurance providers would actually cover my necessary medications, all because the state of Texas has refused to expand access to affordable healthcare at a state level, and our two senators both have consistently voted against an affordable public option of medicare. I have never been one to take things lying down, and so when I was 15, I entered the confusing yet gratifying world of campaign volunteering. I began looking for candidates who would be in favor of expanding healthcare access even though I wasn’t allowed to vote yet, and when I looked at the Gubernatorial Race I found myself resonating strongly with the candidate challenging the incumbent, and I signed up to work for his campaign from the summer till November. I worked as a phone banker, calling people from El Paso to Houston, Corpus Christie to Fort Worth, down the Rio Grande. I was the youngest working in the office which I found isolating at first, and most of the responses were either passive or vitriolic, it was an incredibly tumultuous campaign, and even after the results came in at a 10 point loss, I was still incredibly proud of the work I did, those few voters who gave me the time of day to express why I supported what I did, I was proud of everything I learned about running a statewide campaign, and I was incredibly proud of the effort made to reach every single Texan with us calling a number in every single county. Here I developed my deep love of politics, and my work in the Governor's Race had gotten me recognition from my district party but also from the state party, and I was starting to receive in an influx of other campaigns asking for my help. I obliged. Since then I have had the privilege of continuing my work in states like Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Florida, Arizona, Nevada, and even got to work again in another Texas race late last year. There were many losses in those, but there were also a handful of victories. I haven’t forgotten why I first started doing this, I still want to push through change, and thankfully now I know that I love helping in pushing for change. I remember that I got an email from the operatives at the Kentucky’s governor race I worked remotely thanking me for my work personally, and one line from it has stuck with me since then, “progress while not always linear, is always possible” and that is the fuel that drives the fight that I am proud to have now been 3 years a part of and will be in for life.

I began doing community service through voter registration at the age of 15 after learning that in the 2020 Presidential election, only 55% percent of all eligable adults had voted in the state of Texas. My work began for the 2022 Gubernatorial race for the Beto O'Rourke campaign. I did over 200 hours of regestering potentional voters through phone banking all across the state. I was able to hear from all sides of our state, some from my local district, but others from the other side, and the whole spectrum of life experiance in Texas. Since then I have continued my work through other statewide and even some out of state campaigns, and in college, I plan on studying in order to branch out my work as to be able to continue aiding in the fight to ensure every American can enjoy the power of their voice they are prevented from accesing because of restrictive voting measures.

Bush v. Gore My two biggest passions are art and electoral politics, and in the latter I have found an incredibly consuming interest in learning about the 2000 presidenital election between Vice President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush, and the subsuquent month of chaos in the Florida recount. This election is like no other in the close nature of it, being decided by a margin of 537 votes when the recount was halted by the Supreme Court on the margin of 1 vote. This piece plays on the notion of the two sides of the same coin that I hear from the politically unegaged masking as enlightened centrists, but in reality it shows the radically different realities that was presented to the voters to punch in that butterfly ballot. Whether to put that surplus in a lockbox for Social Security and Medicare, or to use it in a taxcut for the upper/middle class. Whether to continue the current education reforms, of to push standardized testing through No Child Left Behind, whether to continue the unprecedented economic growth by the Clinton Gore Administration following H.W's recession, or to entrust change with the Governor of the second largest state. It was a choice between two diametrically oppossed men, one concerned with chlorofluorocarbon abatement and another concerned with fuzzy math .This was a choice that those who punched in a ballot had to make, and it was made in an incredibly split line, producing the narrowest election since 1876 between Hayes and Tilden. It's a narrowly even coin, with Gore only winning the popular vote by 1% and Bush only passing the 270 mark by 1 electoral vote. That night was a coinflip between consistency and change. I often wonder how different the world would be today if we had a President Gore rather than a President Bush. I don't subscribe myself into the theory that history is just a bunch of men doing things, but I also can't deny what an impactful 8 years those that kicked off the new milenia were. Some of the greatest tragedies of that time were inevitable, no man could've prevented the terroristic and natural disasters of that time. But I wonder, would Gore and Lieberman have passed the Patriot Act, would Gore and Lieberman found WMD's in Iraq, would Gore and Lieberman ignored the subject of climate following Katrina, would Gore and Lieberman have let the manufacturing industry die in the recession? The fate of our world was decided before I was born, but it continues to show itself every day. I have been not only artist, but a political volunteer for many years, and with the knowledge of the importance of every single vote, I have dedicated myself throughout my adolecence to work on helping build the world I would like to see. To quote Vice President Gore, "No matter how hard the loss, defeat might serve as well as victory to shape the soul and let the glory out.".

Even after all of these years in the US, my experience as a first generation Mexican-American has shaped me into the person I am today. I moved from Mexico City to Florida when I was a kid. I'll always be grateful that I had the privilege to grow up in a community that is both a cultural haven and a place full of artistic expression by other Mexican-American and Hispanic artists all throughout the city. Media and art is something that I have found is the most powerful bridge of communication between different ways of life. Because of this I early on developed a love for art, and have continued for years to work on my artistic projects that have gotten me recognition throughout my community, including winning in the animation category in my local film festival, i’ve had my art be exhibited in a local museum, and I even have gotten accepted into one of the top art schools throughout the country. Much of my art is based on the values and the culture I was raised in, both in the design and the influences of other Mexican artists like Guillermo Del Toro and Leonora Carrington, but also in the themes that take from those Mexican senses of pride, family, and stoicism. When I first moved from Mexico to the US I found that one of the few things that carried over with me came from film that represented the universality of these themes, but also how each culture has their own special gradients on these notions. I want to create art and particularly work in films so that I can be a part of that cultural bridge that cultural identity can cross over to a new place, ensuring that no kid ever feels any pressure to assimilate against their will. I am asking for this scholarship because through my years of hard work and the will of god I have been granted the opportunity to attend one of the highest ranking art schools in the country, a place where the industry is born, a place I have dreamt of attending since I was 11 years old. The only thing currently in my way is the barrier of entry, I come from a low income single parent household, attending public education, and the help from your scholarship would be a large brick in making the stairs to my future.