My personal success would be to accomplish my goals in life. Those two goals are as follows. 1. Build and manage a successful business that impacts the population positively. 2. Use the profits to help those in need and therefore glorify God. It's hard to forget about a goal when its necessity is constantly reminding you everywhere you look. I come from a family of immigrants. Almost the entirety of my father's family immigrated to the United States from Honduras to escape excess poverty and violence. They've been living here for decades and their financial situation has adjusted to a more liveable manner, but they have never been able to attain higher education or work high-paying jobs. Most of them did not graduate high school and my father dropped out after 6th grade. He has been working manual labor since he was 18. He cleaned restaurants, painted houses, built closets, and worked landscaping and gardening jobs. To this day, he still works such jobs. My mother finished high school in Brazil and shortly afterward, got pregnant with my sister. She was forced to marry my sister's father and after 6 years, she told her father she was going to go to the United States for a few months to make some money. She was trying to escape from her abusive marriage and start a new life. She has lived here for 31 years. My parents' goal wasn't to achieve the American Dream, but rather to push me to have what they never could. They work their hardest, coming home exhausted mentally and physically every day, to have the money to put me in private school and give me the best life possible with their financial situation. I've always been conscious of our finances so I never really dared to dream bigger than I thought possible. Now, I'm dreaming of Harvard Business School and a master's degree in entrepreneurial management or business management. It's my turn to work hard to achieve success. I want to get into the best business school I can and use my knowledge to build something that will help others. I've been studying hard in school and out of school, trying to find free online courses that will help me develop an entrepreneurial mindset. I read every day and have grown to enjoy learning. I'm passionate about my goal and determined to do something impactful with my life. I don't want to do one thing only, but I want to explore many possibilities and branch out and impact different kinds of people and different areas in the world. College is expensive. I've been applying for scholarships since I was a freshman, and now as a junior, the bridge to this next big part of my life called college is closer and closer. I'm in almost all the extracurriculars offered at my school and I'm in a sport every season. I'm working on a passion project and getting entrepreneurial experience by helping my father with his new business. I'm a first-generation Latina student, who hopes to achieve big things. Thank you for your consideration. Thanks be to God.

I may not be a culinary genius rat who makes amazing ratatouille, but cooking gives me a kind of happiness that is hard to attain nowadays. I'm not sure if it's the phase of adolescence or the generation we are living in, but it's hard to find time for a hobby that gives us pure childlike joy. Every holiday and summer break from school, I end up in the kitchen, looking for food in the fridge complex enough to satisfy my culinary desires. I live in what is known as an "ingredient household", and I've grown up with homemade meals and snacking on fruits when I was hungry. Now that I am a teenager, and spend more time making my own for my school lunch (and home lunch when I'm home alone) I've gotten to explore different recipes and try new combinations of foods. I've developed into quite the foodie, excited and curious about discovering new flavors and techniques. I'm a very branched-out person with interests in many different hobbies and subjects, so culinary arts is not my only interest and I don't plan on it being my only career. I want to impact as many areas as I can, as much as I can. I want to learn to cook professionally and make recipes. Perhaps one day I can build a restaurant that will help people eat delicious but clean food. In the last decades, our food has become carelessly handled, poisoned by the environment it's made in, and downright unhealthy. My mother and sister have studied a lot concerning food and what we should and shouldn't eat to live a long healthy life. My sister is now a nutritionist and my mother has raised me to have healthy eating habits and has taught me that food is a vital factor in our lives. Therefore, I want to use what I've learned to help others healthily raise the next generation. I want to set healthy food as a norm and teach people that eating healthy doesn't have to mean eating bitter or bland-tasting foods for the rest of your life. God has provided the ingredients and instructions for us to live healthy lives, we just need to execute them. I may not be a culinary genius at the moment, but I have a desire to learn and a determination to help people with my resources. I would be honored for your consideration for this scholarship so that I may further my education and achieve my goals. Thanks be to God.

My name is Victoria Leiva Ferraz and my 2 main career goals are to, 1. Build and manage a successful, profiting business that helps people live better lives 2. Use a portion of the profits to help people who can't afford to partake in my business, and glorify God. When I was in elementary, I used to see the 6th graders and think they were practically adults already. They looked so tall and acted so grown. When I was in middle school, I thought the same thing about 9th graders. I thought, "When I'm in 9th grade, I'll finally feel older and not like a kid anymore". I was so anxious for that feeling and the lifestyle changes that came with it. When I got to 9th grade, I realized I needed to, as Gen Z says, "lock in". I realized that 4 years is not that long and that in 3 years, I needed to get good grades, join extracurriculars, and get a ton of community service done. When I got to 10th grade, I realized that even if I got into the college of my dreams, money would still be an issue. I've searched bold.org and other scholarship websites and I haven't found a scholarship that fits what I want for my life as well as this one does. I'm from a low-income family of immigrants who have worked beyond hard to provide a future for me that they could never have. Both of my parents came to America escaping a traumatic past and oppressive conditions. My mother came from the large country of Brazil and my father came from the small country of Honduras. Although their personalities and backgrounds contrast greatly they both agree on the fact that I, Victoria Leiva Ferraz, will go to college. Several years ago, my father tried to build his own business before, but it didn't work out. This year, he is building his business again with my help. I've taken a year-long accounting class, a business & entrepreneurship class, and a personal finance class at school to learn how to build and manage a business. I have borrowed business books from the library and watched videos from entrepreneurs and finance experts about entrepreneurship. I like to learn and with this scholarship, I get closer to the opportunity of going to a good business school. As I've mentioned earlier in this essay and my bold.org profile, I love to learn and I have a strong desire to learn and use my knowledge to build something that will help others. Thank you for your consideration. Thanks be to God.

I may not be a culinary genius rat who makes amazing ratatouille, but cooking gives me a kind of happiness that is hard to attain nowadays. I'm not sure if it's the phase of adolescence or the generation we are living in, but it's hard to find time for a hobby that gives us pure childlike joy. Every holiday and summer break from school, I end up in the kitchen, looking for food in the fridge complex enough to satisfy my culinary desires. I live in what is known as an "ingredient household", and I've grown up with homemade meals and snacking on fruits when I was hungry. Now that I am a teenager, and spend more time making my own for my school lunch (and home lunch when I'm home alone) I've gotten to explore different recipes and try new combinations of foods. I've developed into quite the foodie, excited and curious about discovering new flavors and techniques I'm a very branched-out person with interests in many different hobbies and subjects, so culinary arts is not my only interest and I don't plan on it being my only career. I want to impact as many areas as I can, as much as I can. I want to learn to cook professionally and make recipes. Perhaps one day I can build a restaurant that will help people eat delicious but clean food. In the last decades, our food has become carelessly handled, poisoned by the environment it's made in, and downright unhealthy. My mother and sister have studied a lot concerning food and what we should and shouldn't eat to live a long healthy life. My sister is now a nutritionist and my mother has raised me to have healthy eating habits and has taught me that food is a vital factor in our lives. Therefore, I want to use what I've learned to help others healthily raise the next generation. I want to set healthy food as a norm teach people that eating healthy doesn't have to mean eating bitter or bland tasting foods for the rest of your life. God has provided the ingredients and instructions for us to live healthy lives, we just need to execute them. I may not be a culinary genius at the moment, but I have a desire to learn and a determination to help people with my resources. I would be honored for your consideration for this scholarship. Thanks be to God.

I've always loved asking questions, but even more than that, I love answering them. There's something about just knowing information that is so satisfying. I feel like my decisions are safer and better informed when I know facts. I feel more comfortable in my relationships when I know more about the person's background and how they think. This desire to know though (hey that rhymed), has had some negative consequences to my mental health. When I was in 9th grade, I was interested in learning about body language. I watched videos on Youtube from people who used to be in the FBI teaching how to read body language. I got a book at the library about body language that I read thoroughly (until the library started contacting me about it being overdue). I applied the knowledge I gained from this piece of literature by watching my classmates interact with each other, and how my friends acted when they talked to me. Once I started analyzing people's behaviors though, I got more and more curious as to why they did certain things. I started studying psychology, watching psychologists break down movie scenes, and getting more calls from the library telling me all the psychology books I got were overdue. I thought it was a harmless interest; that humans were just complex beings that were fun to study. And the reality is, it was a harmless interest. Until it wasn't. The analyzing turned into overanalyzing that turned into paranoia that turned into anxiety. With every word and glance, I questioned my friendships and whether people actually liked me, or were just tolerating me. I started talking to people less and isolating myself. Throughout this period in my life, I didn't feel motivated to do school work, but I knew I'd care about it when it affected me in the future. Therefore, working on assignments I wasn't interested in was draining. My family isn't one that is used to talk about their feelings. Both of my parents have gone through a lot of hardships and struggles so they've grown to have tough skin. I don't believe I come from a broken home, but it didn't really help me. I started trying to figure out how to stop overthinking, and overanalyzing. I watched videos about mental health, finally realizing why people advocated to increase awareness about it. I started reflecting on everything I thought and felt, and learned to feel secure with myself. No matter the career I work in, I'd like to help people in some way. I believe my experiences with my mental health have helped me understand and relate to people better. Whether it be as a psychologist, a teacher, or a chef, helping people and making their lives better must be the core of what I do.

My name is Victoria Leiva Ferraz, and as my name states, I am a victory. My parents had me at a later age, which came with many difficulties. Following miscarriage after miscarriage, I was born right before it was too late- for I had wrapped my umbilical cord around my neck at the last minute. So after a lot of defeat, my birth was a victory. Growing up, my parents have always strived to provide me with what I needed. As a young child, I never had to worry about educational materials, uniforms, etc, much less basic needs like food and water. My parents always found a way (with God's help of course) to take care of our family and offer me the best materials and education they could afford. As I grew more aware of my surroundings and learned more about my parents I realized their lives were not easy. My father was an immigrant child escaping from a violent and impoverished country. My mother was an immigrant youth escaping a marriage she felt trapped in. They were unable to pursue further education and go to college, so they work in manual labor to provide for our family. Having this experience, my parents push me to work hard in school. They sacrifice a lot to send me to a good school and to guarantee I have a better life. They taught me perseverance and determination in hard times. I have a passion for learning and studying the world around me. I have not had as many outlets to use my curiosity and drive for exploration, and I'd like to expand that. I constantly feel the need to find answers to questions that start with "Why?". I love debating, creating arguments and hearing what people think about a subject and how they got to that conclusion. I like listening to people and studying why they may think that way, on a psychological and neuroscientific level. Learning about people helps me understand them better and therefore improves my communication with them. Whatever role I'll have in the future, I hope to use my understanding of people to help those around me. No matter the career I end up with, I'd like to establish a change in my community so I may provide opportunities to those who usually fall through the cracks. Investing in my education, in an increase of knowledge and experience, will be an investment in a path to a community full of opportunity. Which will be a step toward a better society. God allowed me to live. Therefore, I would like to use this money to further my education. I'd like to learn more about our world and the people in it. I'd like to gain knowledge on how to help others and create a more peaceful and inclusive community. I would not only like to use this money to create a better life for myself but for my family and my community.

My name is Victoria Leiva Ferraz, and as my name states, I am a victory. My parents had me at a later age, which came with many difficulties. Following miscarriage after miscarriage, I was born right before it was too late- for I had wrapped my umbilical cord around my neck at the last minute. So after a lot of defeat, my birth was a victory. Growing up, my parents have always strived to provide me with what I needed. As a young child, I never had to worry about educational materials, uniforms, etc, much less basic needs like food and water. As I grew more aware of my surroundings and learned more about my parents I realized their lives were not easy. My father was an immigrant child escaping from a violent and impoverished country. My mother was an immigrant youth escaping a marriage she felt trapped in. They were unable to pursue further education and go to college, so they work in manual labor to provide for our family. Having this experience, my parents push me to work hard in school. They sacrifice a lot to send me to a good school and to guarantee I have a better life. They taught me perseverance and determination in hard times. I have a passion for learning and studying the world around me. I have not had as many outlets to use my curiosity and drive for exploration, and I'd like to expand that. I constantly like to find answers to questions that start with "Why?". I love debating, creating arguments and hearing what people think about a subject and why. I like listening to people and learning how they think. In doing these things, I'd also help others. No matter the career I end up with, I'd like to establish a change in my community so I may provide opportunities to those who usually "fall through the cracks". Investing in my education, in an increase of knowledge and experience, will be an investment in a path to a community full of opportunity. Which will be a step toward a better society. God allowed me to live. Therefore, I would like to use this money to further my education. I'd like to learn more about our world and the people in it. I'd like to gain knowledge on how to help others and create a more peaceful and inclusive community. I would not only like to use this money to create a better life for myself but for my family and my community.

Education is not an A+ you get on a geometry test, it is the mentoring one receives from someone with years of experience. It's learning to make wise choices or accept the consequences. It's a preview of society and learning to work hard. It's studying different skills that'll help you in the future. I've read quite a few dystopian stories and noticed that in each one, the tyrannical governments lack compassion. They're so focused on making everything picture-perfect and solving the problems that are at the surface, that they end up creating more problems. I think there will never be a perfect society in the way utopias are portrayed. Innocent mistakes and painful experiences are important to the upbringing of a person. The only way we could all be at peace is if we followed God's commandments- that'd be a true utopia. Again though, that wouldn't be possible considering we're all sinners and there will always be evil people. My short-term goals include having a 4.0 GPA, learning to manage my time better, establishing a productive routine, and influencing others for the better. Learning about these dystopias, really made me realize I should take control of my life and work hard. Some people with tyrannical governments don't have this opportunity, and I should appreciate mine. I have a passion for learning and studying the world around me. I have not had as many outlets to use my curiosity and drive for exploration, and I'd like to expand that. I constantly like to find the stories behind people's actions and the reasons they act the way they act. I love debating, creating arguments and hearing what people think about a subject and why. I like listening to people and learning how they think. In doing these things, I'd also help others. No matter the career I end up with, I'd like to establish a change in my community so I may provide opportunities to those who need them. Investing in my education, in an increase of knowledge and experience, will be an investment in a path to a community full of opportunity. Which will be a step toward a better society. God allowed me to live. Therefore, I would like to use this money to further my education. I'd like to learn more about our world and the people in it. I'd like to gain knowledge on how to help others and create a more peaceful and inclusive community. I may not be able to create a utopia, but I'd like to help as many people as I can. I would not like to use this money to create a better life for myself only but for my family and my community. Thanks be to God for this wonderful opportunity.

My name is Victoria Leiva Ferraz, and as my name states, I am a victory. My parents had me at a later age, which came with many difficulties. Following miscarriage after miscarriage, I was born right before it was too late- for I had wrapped my umbilical cord around my neck at the last minute. So after a lot of defeat, my birth was a victory. Growing up, my parents have always strived to provide me with what I needed. As a young child, I never had to worry about educational materials, uniforms, etc, much less basic needs like food and water. As I grew more aware of my surroundings and learned more about my parents I realized their lives were not easy. My father was an immigrant child escaping from a violent and impoverished country. My mother was an immigrant youth escaping a marriage she felt trapped in. They were unable to pursue further education and go to college, so they work in manual labor to provide for our family. Having this experience, my parents push me to work hard in school. They sacrifice a lot to send me to a good school and to guarantee I have a better life. They taught me perseverance and determination in hard times. I have a passion for learning and studying the world around me. I have not had as many outlets to use my curiosity and drive for exploration, and I'd like to expand that. I constantly like to find answers to questions that start with "Why?". I love debating, creating arguments and hearing what people think about a subject and why. I like listening to people and learning how they think. In doing these things, I'd also help others. No matter the career I end up with, I'd like to establish a change in my community so I may provide opportunities to those who usually "fall through the cracks". Investing in my education, in an increase of knowledge and experience, will be an investment in a path to a community full of opportunity. Which will be a step toward a better society. God allowed me to live. Therefore, I would like to use this money to further my education. I'd like to learn more about our world and the people in it. I'd like to gain knowledge on how to help others and create a more peaceful and inclusive community. I would not only like to use this money to create a better life for myself but for my family and my community.