"Without a sense of caring, there can be no sense of community,” Anthony J. D’Angelo. Every human being needs a sense of community. Community helps unite and bring people together, because of their background. However, I wanted to build a community in my school despite any student's original background. Coming from an overpopulated middle school, multiple students, including myself, felt no sense of individuality or community. With a student population of over four thousand, there just was not any space for students to truly embrace themselves. Every student was no different than the one they were sitting next to, kind of like an office job, but so much worse. Additionally, from watching multiple High School Disney movies, high school is supposed to be the best year of a person’s life, so if I wanted a different experience than my middle school, I had to change it. That was what I thought before a global pandemic took us all by surprise. The school life I wanted to build was – for now – out of my grasp. However, the need for a student-wide community was more evident than ever. Without the grueling bell schedule thousands of schools had, I now had the freedom to do whatever I wanted in my free time. I was finally able to dig deeper into myself and my culture, so I could bring that into my new school. I was able to learn about myself, my emotions, and others and their emotions. I understood that everyone was going through hard times with their family, school, and social lives, so I started to host virtual events, where students could watch movies with each other at home. This was the beginning of my foundation to promote inclusion and diversity at my new school. Once schools opened again, being able to associate names to faces was a big benefactor to our community. Attending school online and learning people’s personalities before ever actually seeing them gave students a safe space to be themselves. Additionally, with our class’s community built through adversity and strife, we were a tighter knit class that no one had seen before. I would finally be able to build the community that I admired and deserved. However, I did not stop there, I couldn’t stop there. During my sophomore year of high school, I participated in the school’s yearbook program. Being able to attend and immortalize the memories of students and capture the sense of our tight knit community gave me a sense of accomplishment. Additionally, we hosted many events to bring students together, like photo booths and end-of-the-year signing parties. Students and teachers alike were able to finalize their relationships and friendships to relive their memories through pictures, texts, and signatures. Additionally, during my previous Junior and current Senior year of high school, I was elected as president of our school’s Audio and Visual club. With this new position, I was determined to continue creating a diverse community that celebrated each other for themselves. For the past two years, our club were the sole contributors to celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. We invited any student from any class grade to help decorate their school in celebration of the month. Students were free to express their culture from their countries and take part in the events that we hosted, helping to continue to build communities event after event. In short, due to the challenges I’ve experienced in high school, I was able to cultivate determination, tenacity, boldness, and understanding.

In a society that is increasingly becoming isolated, vulnerable, and lonesome, it is often hard to find groups or communities that someone can connect with, participate in, and work with for a common goal. As Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen once said, "The best of community does give one a deep sense of belonging and well-being; and in that sense, community takes away loneliness." According to Nouwen, communities are an essential part of human societies, helping to increase a person's connections and confidence. As an individual who has experienced loneliness and lack of bonds due to not belonging to a community, I understand the value and effort needed to create supportive environments for people. The lack of community led me to college and into my career path of innovation. I participated in the school's yearbook program during my sophomore year of high school. I felt accomplished when I was able to attend events, immortalize students' memories, and capture the sense of our tight-knit community. Additionally, we hosted many events to bring students together, like photo booths and end-of-the-year signing parties. Students and teachers alike were able to finalize their relationships and friendships and relive their memories through pictures, texts, and signatures. Additionally, during my previous Junior and current Senior years of high school, I was elected as president of our school’s Audio and Visual Club. With this new position, I was determined to continue creating a diverse community that celebrated each other for themselves. For the past two years, our club has been the sole contributor to celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. We invited any student from any class grade to help decorate their school in celebration of the month. Students were free to express their culture from their countries and take part in the events that we hosted, helping to continue to build communities event after event. Even now, we are planning to collaborate with different clubs to promote their cultures and traditions, promoting inclusion and diversity at our school. Needless to say, the future career path that I want to move toward is Urban and Regional Planning, which incorporates what I love doing the most: connecting with people. This career fueled my long-term dream of designing my city. Building, designing, and gaining the money to fund a city requires a lot of work, however, the education I receive from attending university will make this long-term dream achievable. Once I finish my bachelor's degree in Sustainable Urban Design at the University of Texas at Arlington, I'll work at a company dedicated to improving and creating cities. People shouldn't plan to visit cities strictly for work and necessity but to live and thrive in them. Subsequently, I can design similar cities by focusing my career on transportation. Due to many American cities becoming more car-centered rather than people-centered, I plan to incorporate many modes of transportation to build a more accessible transportation network. I aspire to build a community that encourages socializing rather than isolation and efficiency. All in all, the setbacks, events, and trials I went through during my schooling year have significantly impacted my choice of career. By losing a community, I've learned the effort and hard work that goes into creating one. With my degree in Sustainable Urban Design and my vision in innovation, I plan to make communities much more accessible and apparent to everyone, regardless of who they are. I plan to make cities and the world a better place throughout my career, and I hope the Minority Women in STEM Financial Need Scholarship will give me a chance to do so.