Hi! My name is Tatyana Vasquez. I am currently a 20-year-old female that identifies ethnically as Hispanic and racially as black, but I was not always so sure about my identity. Growing up, my father has had a day job, but he also ran a nonprofit organization helping young boys obtain their basketball dreams, and my mother was a school teacher. I was a smart quiet child that always found myself ahead of my class, the older I got the more I realized that I was one of the few if not the only ethnic person in the room. I tested into my high school​, Boston Latin School, and faced adversity, but I am grateful​ because that adversity along with how my parents raised me helped​ me​ realize my future​ career.​ After completing one year out of my four, I realized very quickly that I was on the wrong path. At the time, I was working in an office while declared as a neuroscience major. I loved the thought of helping people in the future, but I loved the thought of working alongside other people to crunch numbers and solve issues that were not life-threatening​. Surrounded by a very unique office of prominently​ black men that had played or coached​ basketball at one point in their life, I heard so many stories. ​In the​​ last semester of my first year,​ I decided to change my major to business with ​specificity in sport management with a minor in African-American studies. This change in major meant that I also had to change universities if I wanted maximum success. Upon doing research into my new career​ choice, I saw so many NBA basketball teams striving to employ individuals that look like their players and that is when I realized this is my true calling. I want to work on the business side of an industry that initiates​ change after realizing an issue is at hand. I realize that I am intending on going into a prominently​ male field​, but the education I​ have had and the education I am obtaining with preparing me. I plan to use my education to push the boundaries as much as possible so in the future young females can see how far I've​ come and see it as a possible career. I plan to use my education to secure my seat at the table and give a voice that has not been heard before. I plan to use my education to make a difference for the better.

My entire life I was the smallest of my cousins in size and age. Along with that I was a hispanic female, so my entire life everyone looked at me like I could not do anything. The only people that always told me I could do anything was my parents and my grandmother. My grandmother raised me for a majority of my life, so I knew how to speak Spanish before I could speak English. Being a bilingual female come with many perks, as I grew I took my education seriously because I want to prove everyone that did not believe in me wrong. My entire life my father pushed me to be the best because he knew how much people underestimated me. Now that I am older, I can confidently say that seeing the way my father changed his life and others makes me ambitious to achieve things I never imagined. My father always academically thrived and his profession is a direct example of that, but his heart was always towards basketball. He worked a 9-5 to provide for my brother and I, but on the weekends he trained basketball high schoolers for free in hopes to change their life. Viewing this my entire life, I saw that I can make difference even if it may seem small it effects the world. Identifying as a hispanic woman, I faced a lot of adversity and many stereotypes. With these stereotypes being the foundation of what I heard outside of my home, I want to prove so many people and systems wrong. These experiences are a direct cause and have effected me to be more persistent, ambitious and confident in my daily life and everything I do. With the judgement of others, it has taught me how much words can effect someone. While viewing my fathers lifestyle, it has made me understand that I have to give back to my community because anything big starts with just a small act. The world is a cruel place, but that dies not mean you have to let this world bully you. In preparation of goals to make a name for myself and a legacy for my father I will make sure that I am mentally, physically and emotionally healthy. I will not follow the crowd on a path, but instead create my own. I can achieve my goal of opening a community center, I just need to make sure that I take all the correct steps to change my city. This will take a lot of work, but I know I am capable. When I do complete my academic goals, it will line everything else up for me. I hope to build a community center for student athletes of color in dedication of my father and to make goals more obtainable for others. I want to make his dream of his life revolving around basketball a reality. The life I was given has made me into the person I am today and no matter what I went through, I am so happy with what I was given and how I reacted. My environment shaped me, but I will not let it stop me from becoming anything I can become. Last me my most important goal, is a goal I hope to achieve everyday. I hope that every single person I have interacted with helped themselves to become the best possible version. I hope that I never effected anyones life negatively, because I know how negativity made me feel and I don't want to make someone feel like that.

Growing up they called me repunzel. My hair was long and fine so the family thought that was an accurate nickname. Growing up they called me oreo, just because I did not use slang like "the black person I was". They called me something else because I was too light to look like a black girl, but too dark to look the white girl. I had no clue what box I fell into racially growing up all I knew was I speak spanish and english and that hispanic is not a racial catagory. These type of incidents made me question my idenity,but it shaped me into the person I am today. My persistence, positivity and curiousity has lead me down the path I am on. Now I identify as racially black, ethnically hispanic, my gender orientation is female and I have decided enter a prodimently white and male career path. These are important points in my story because I know myself so well that my goals are not too far for me to reach. My goals when written out, are a reflection of my life. As a black woman, I want to sculpt that definition to embody everything I do. As a Latina, I want to prove so many people and systems wrong. Lastly as a woman, I want to show the world that I can do anything a man can do, but better. In preparation of goals to make a name for myself and a legacy for my father I will make sure that I am mentally, physically and emotionally healthy. I will not follow the crowd on a path, but instead create my own. My persoanl goals are to acquire my masters in three years and be a home owner by 25 years old. My personal goals, in hopes will make me financially free so I can achieve my goal of opening a community center and work in the NBA to continue my life in sports. My goal I hope to achieve is finishing all of my academic goals within 3 years, this means that when my peers are graduating and obtaining their bachelors degree I will be receiving both my bachelors and masters. This will take a lot of work, but I know I am capable. When I do complete my first goal, it will line everything else up for me. I hope to build a community center for student athletes of color in dedication of my father. His entire life he worked a job he did not love to provide for me, but on his weekends he trained boys in basketball to give them a chance at academic excellence and college. I want to make his dream of his life revolving around basketball a reality. My most important goal, is a goal I hope to achieve everyday. I hope that every single person I have interacted with helped themselves to become the best possible version. I hope that I never effected anyones life negatively, because I know how negativity made me feel and I don't want to make someone feel like that. The life I was given has made me into the person I am today and no matter what I went through, I am so happy with what I was given and how I reacted. My environment shaped me, but I will not let it stop me from becoming anything I can become.

The stereotypes that fuel our society prevent individuals from reaching their full potential. Depending on one's race or personal identification, society places a box of things you are able to like and dislike. This type of societal conditioning my friends went through showed me how limiting the mind could be, when closed to opportunity. My parents encouraged me to break that box when I was young. I am grateful that I was not restricted to a box because now I have found passion in activities stereotypically limiting to race. My schooling introduced stress to my life at 14. So that is when my fascination with my spiritual and physical health lead me​ down a path where I was able to find yoga. My true love for yoga began when I was 16 years old. I was surfing through​ Youtube for workout​ videos I could do from the comfort of my room and I landed on a 15-minute​ yoga video. With my pink workout​ mat rolled up in the corner I decided to lay it out and begin to follow the instructor on the screen. Once I finished I had felt so relaxed​ that I told my mom and she suggested I make it a part of my weekly routine. From that moment on I began to do yoga twice a week in my room, with my favorite candle on and the lights slightly​ dim. I still continue this routine and during the summer. When my friends​ and I work out​ in a field I show them some yoga poses before we begin our intense workout. They love when I show them new poses. These types of interactions made me realize how much I​ love yoga. If I am given the opportunity​ to become a yoga instructor at this year ​and​ age, I would take my skillset anywhere. I would use my personal network to expand yoga within my community and my friends'​ community. With my yoga license,​ I can encourage young girls that are in those societal boxes to break their personal box and grow as a person. I hope​ to one day impact my community so much that the statistic for​ yoga demonstrates​ the ​diversity and spreads across all body types equally.