My name is Serenity Matanza, and I was able to feed approximately 1,425 people during the holiday season. I was the Family Engagement Student Coordinator at Pueblo High School for 4 years, and I used this position to raise money via faculty and generous donors and would spend that money on turkeys and side items for November for underprivileged families that wouldn’t be able to celebrate Thanksgiving without my help. Besides holiday food drives, I also helped deliver food boxes and resources to families. I started volunteering for the community when I was too small to carry a jug of milk. As the Family Engagement Student Coordinator for Pueblo High School, I would make informational videos on social media that would advertise school events, volunteer events we were planning, important dates and times, and celebrations. My official responsibilities included planning and running school events, volunteer events, and the videos I posted on social media was a role I created for myself. I gave myself the task of helping the community, and I prioritized this as much as possible. I wanted to make sure that students got the best high school education they could through not having to worry about meals, having a clean school, and having their parents be involved with Pueblo High School and their students’ personal journey through education. I always wanted to help my community through service because my dad told me that the most important people weren’t the most successful, but were the most impactful. Most times, the most successful were the most impactful. He taught me that healthcare was one of the best industries to go into because healthcare has such a large impact. I was eleven when I decided that I wanted to go into Neurosurgery. I like a challenge, and when I saw the length of schooling that was required and how many people talked about the difficulty of the field, I decided then on I would dedicate myself to becoming a Neurosurgeon. Now, I am an incoming freshman in college and my goal has not changed but my circumstances have. With the University of Arizona decreasing their financial aid given to instate students, my dad losing his job of 30 years, and my heritage being a disadvantage, I rely on scholarships like this one to have a hope of attending university and going to medical school. Despite these challenges, I still plan on making the largest positive impact in my community that I can. I hope to help the homeless, feed families that can’t afford it, and aid as many people as possible. I have led clean ups, school events, and food drives before, and I plan to continue doing so at the University of Arizona and as a Neurosurgeon. Success isn’t as meaningful if we don’t have people to celebrate with. I want to touch as many people’s lives as possible through my career and through community service.

“Rich people stay rich by living like they’re broke. Broke people stay broke by living like they’re rich.” My parents have taught me to live frugally with the little money we have. My parents make a combined income of around $25,000, and for four people, that’s nothing. We rely on AHCCCS, our community food bank, and any freebies we can get, so we look like we can afford a lot. Almost all of my clothes are from the discount rack at Ross or Walmart or are hand-me-downs. I appreciate the wisdom that my parents have passed down to me through them being financially open and honest with me. Along with the lessons that my parents taught me, I also took Marketing and Business as a Dual Enrollment class my junior year. This class taught me the basics of personal economy and fiscal policy before I took AP Economics, and gave me access to getting the Seal of Personal Finance from the State of Arizona. To get the Seal of Personal Finance, I had to enroll in a set of courses on Personal Finance that I studied independently from school and I also had to participate in the Stock Market Game. Learning the highs and lows of the business cycle and how the economy stretches and shrinks really helped me understand how consumers should participate in the economy. The Seal of Personal Finance lessons also taught me about credit, debit, loans, interest, and different ways to budget. My experience in Marketing, the Seal of Personal Finance Program, and AP Macroeconomics and Microeconomics has taught me how to be responsible and frugal with my money. I am planning on becoming a Neurosurgeon which has a salary much higher than any level of income my family has ever experienced. Without these lessons in my high school career, I wouldn’t be able to handle the amount of money I am going to get in the future but with the preparation I have received, I am confident in my ability to manage my money well when the time comes. I’ll have to manage expenses I’ve never had to before, like all the insurance, house, and credit card bills. The other big topic I learned about in my economy related classes was investment. Putting money into stocks to get back a certain amount for retirement, or even just to receive dividends or sell later is what I learned through participating in the Stock Market Game. My team never lost money and we actually ranked pretty high in the Stock Market Game out of 400 teams throughout the state of Arizona. We prioritized buying composite stocks like the SMP500, Dow Jones, and the Nasdaq index stocks. I learned that it was more beneficial to buy from indexes and composites instead of individual companies because indexes are steadier and less likely to lose value than individual company stocks. The high value of all the individual stocks helps balance out the few that might be losing value in the market. All these lessons have taught me to be responsible with my money and to not impulsively spend it, and that is what I plan to also do with the money I get from this scholarship. Stretching every penny is my goal with every dollar I earn.