I am incoming college freshman and majoring in Public Relations. I chose this path because of my fondness of media and how knowledgeable I am of it but could always improve myself. I want to work with a morally responsible and honest company. I want to be a part of a team who are trustworthy and improve our community even in the smallest ways. I know there are PR teams who don’t always protect their brand’s image or take advantage of their employees, never giving them a voice or say in their activities or circumstances. I want to create a comfortable and warm atmosphere within my team. In terms on how I’m going to pay for college, as of right now, I’m using student loans for my first year. During this first year, I’m going to save as much as I can with jobs I do throughout the year. Each semester is around $5k and housing is $6k so I am mostly gonna save my money and only buy essential in order to maintain a decent amount of money. I became a MOA ever since BigHit announced that a new boy group was going to be debuting and supported them ever since. I lost my interest in kpop after a while but this year I suddenly found my love for them again after dealing with an emotional breakdown for a couple months and couldn’t find any happiness for a while. Summer started and I forgot how warming it was to listen to a group’s music and genuinely feel safe with its members and find comfort with them. They lifted up my spirits and saved my life in a way I would never have believed. I love each member equally because of their unique personalities and charms. I was always drawn to soobin since the beginning because of our similar personalities in ways where we’re both introverts and love to geek over our interests. I also love to read and only show my true side to very close friends where I can be myself and be as extroverted as I want without any judgement. My favorite song is “Take My Half” from their newest album ‘TOGETHER’ because of how much I relate to it. No matter how little I possess whether its love, emotional availability, or any physical material, I would rather give it to them if it made them happy. I would put them before myself because that is the type of person I am and will always be. It might seem like I don’t care about myself but it’s because I love them so much that I would sacrifice what little I have so that it would make them happy and feel better because their happiness is my happiness and that is all I need to stay content. TXT has inspired me to become an ambitious person and know that everything will be alright in the end as long as I know who I am and what I stand for. There is always a tomorrow and that alone is good enough for me because I know there are always new chances and a better tomorrow. They slightly influenced my career choice because I am always in awe of their staff team who take care of so many behind the scenes and manage to keep audiences and fans engaged to draw more of a crowd and raise viewership. I wanted to give it a try at Public Relations and see how rewarding it is when things go smoothly and see the satisfaction of customers and employees. (chose the attached photo because of how long I’ve known them and how fond I am of them.)

My name is Violeta Anahi Cardenas. I am recent high school graduate. As you can probably tell by my name, I am hispanic. This might sound like every other applicant but I struggled. In a different way though. I grew up not knowing any spanish. This would lead to my current problem with social anxiety. I hated speaking in public. Not because of the dangers of strangers. But because of the fear of talking with someone in spanish without any understanding. This might have been my fault. I never wanted to speak spanish with my parents mainly because little me decided not to. I learned english first and stuck with it up until now. As I got older, I felt a bit more comfortable with just english. Until I got to middle school. During Social Studies class, we had to swap seats because of students misbehaving. A student who only knew spanish had to sit next to me. According to the entire class, he basically cussed me out in front of the teacher. I didn’t understand a single thing and looked at him with confusion. I never understood the problem because I wasn’t talkative in general so I thought we would just mind our own business and work on our assignments. From then on, my social anxiety only grew. I always minded my own business and hated to talk to any new strangers. My current friends knew I couldn’t speak spanish and didn’t judge me for it. As High school came along, I had to deal with the dread of in-class presentations. That didn’t bother me as much if it was any other class. It was in spanish class where everyday I had to speak aloud in, you guessed it, spanish. I tried my best every time and I’m sure people didn’t care but I sure did. I wanted to maintain a good image of me and not be humiliated. After a while, I got used to it and I even got better at it. I had fun with those around me. They encouraged me to continue what I was doing no matter how awful I was. After that experience, I knew I was only going to grow stronger. My social anxiety started declining and I got bolder whenever I ran errands by myself. After high school ended, my parents pushed me to become self-efficient in the adult world. I started buying my own food without any help from my sister, I talked to store clerks and cashiers without any embarrassment or hesitation when I needed assistance. Even after I had doubts in getting accepted into my dream college, I was the most proudest of myself for working hard and stay diligent in my studies. I could finally start studying at UT - Austin and major in Public Relations. I could finally repay my debts to those who got me to where I am. No one should be prouder of me other than myself and my family to see how far I’ve overcome.

I believe that success holds many different beliefs. For me, it also has simple meanings. I’ve had successful moments in school where I’ve had high A’s and made my parents proud. Also simple successes like learning to ride my bike at 12 years old and enjoying a ride every now and then. Applying for this kind of scholarship would help me achieve success like never before. I’m currently a high school senior who has done everything in her power to make her parents proud in every single activity I do in school. For years I’ve worked hard academically to be at the top of my class and be known for being studious and a trustworthy student my other classmates can ask help from. My parents are hard working and hardly ask for anything besides my best in everything I do and good grades. I, of course, obey their request and without fail make them proud every single year. However, this year was one of the hardest, financially and emotionally. I was at my lowest and hardly had interest in school for a period of time. I slowly realized that everything I have done so far would go to waste and I needed to focus on the future and not let my parents down when I was so close to graduating and getting into college. I started to pick myself up and get into the right mindset. Soon enough, I turned everything around. My grades went back to their original 90’s and 100’s and my happiness was back. It felt like I was never gonna get out of my spiral but with the support of my family and friends, I came out stronger than ever. I even got accepted into my dream school! This is what I call a major success, the biggest in my life so far. The only thing that would hinder the continuation of my success would be our financial situation. Expenses are too much and supporting two other college students in our family is taking a toll on us financially. With my recent admission, a third college student would put us under more debt than we are already in. On top of that, I hardly received any financial aid from FAFSA and it was a loan for under $3,000, something that we do not need to repay. I am planning on living out of town and it would be a bigger cost in addition to tuition and school-related expenses. My mother is focused on her degree while being full-time employed. My sister has only a bit of debt to pay off thanks to a scholarship that was given to her but she was also part-time employed the entire time. I’m left on my own to get a job soon and no other means of paying for my own tuition. It’s hard to get a job in my area that takes in students like me if I’m not going to stay long term. However, I am going to my money as much as I can during the summer so that I may not rely so much on loans or money from my parents. The minute I start getting money from my job is the minute I have started my journey on my newest success.