I Want to Give Back to My Latino Community with My Academic Knowledge and Research

Coming from a Mexican immigrant family I have learned to recognize since a very young age that because of the status that my parents are placed in they cannot pursue a better future like the one I want. I have been given the opportunity to challenge myself with obtaining a higher education than just high school itself. My parents have demonstrated to me through their hard work that I have to value this opportunity unless I want to end up with low paying job. My life long dedication comes from seeing my parents make sacrifices in order for my education to continue.

I am a second generation Mexican-American and the last of seven children. My siblings and I were born and raised here in the United States with a mix of Mexican and American values. Our parents migrated to the U.S. at an early age in search of the American dream. Both my mother and father left their families in Mexico to start a better life for themselves and their future children.

Education, or the lack thereof, has always been something that plagued my immediate family. I come from a background of immigrant parents—hard-working, yet unable to acquire academic achievements. My father did not graduate out of high school in Vietnam because he was drafted into the Vietnam War and escaped as a refugee thereafter. My mother, on the other hand, graduated from high school but was not able to pursue higher education due to the burdens she had working and raising me as a child.

My parents always wanted to give their children the life they never had. I am Mexican-American, both of my parents immigrated from Mexico to the U.S. before I was born. I have numerous relatives, including my older sister, who do not have the same opportunities I have to achieve success because they are undocumented. For them, college was only a dream that could never be attained. Being the first U.S. citizen out of my entire family affected the way I thought about life. It was expected that I would attend college because I was the only one who had access to all the resources granted to American citizens. Although, I agreed with my family, the pressure to succeed and be a role model to my younger siblings was overwhelming.

I was born and raised in the greater Washington D.C. metropolitan area. I come from a middle-class family and have two brothers and one sister. Growing up, my parents made great personal and financial sacrifices and took on expensive loans for my high school education. For this I am forever indebted and extremely grateful. I truly believe the importance placed on my education along with the quality of schooling has greatly shaped the person I am today.

My entire family was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. After three and a half years of living there my family decided to seek a better future in The United States. My father would go to the United States back and forth to work and earn money to send to us in Mexico. Eventually my mother was able to get a visa and my brother along with my little sister had an alternate way into the United States. We lived in Dallas Texas and Atlanta Georgia before settling in Howard county Maryland in a very small apartment. Luckily we were doing pretty well with my dad being the only one knowing English at the time. My father was working two jobs and I was getting ready to start kindergarten. I was very excited because the education we would have received in Mexico was nothing compared to the education in Howard County. I was excited for what was to come, but there were disadvantages of knowing only Spanish. Being bullied because of my poor English had an impact on me. I was in completely separate classes learning things that were simple compared to the regular course. I was excluded from certain activities, field trips and assemblies. I was clueless at first though as I slowly learned the language I understood things a lot more.

I was born in Victoria, Texas. Being raised in South Florida, I’ve been around a variety of cultures and diverse people all my life. I am mu-lingual (English / Spanish) and I am conversational in Italian. Attending Somerset Academy Charter since kindergarten is one of the reasons I am who I am today. Somerset Academy is a school that makes each student feel important, valued and part of a school community. I have always had the opportunity to speak up and reach out to my peers for any help and advice needed. The Somerset Academy community has shaped me into being a dedicated student and has allowed me to build mentoring relationships with many of my professors. Another reason I am the person I am today is because of my parents and the empowerment afforded to me. I come from a family that has instilled in me the significance of an education and a strong work ethic. They have also taught me the importance of freedom of choice and accountability for those choices. My parents have always stressed that an education is paramount to attain a

My parents are Hmong refugees that immigrated to the United States after the Vietnam War in the 1970s in search of a better life. In their eyes, America is the land of the free and where dreams can become reality. In Laos, my parents lived an agrarian lifestyle with very little education. Despite their lack of education, they realized that education held the key to success. Throughout my life, my parents emphasized the importance of education and did their best to guide my siblings and me. This was not an easy task for my parents because of the cultural adjustment that they experienced, but they managed to instill in me invaluable character qualities such as patience, perseverance, hard work, sacrifice and courage. I am the third youngest out of twelve children, and I will be the first to receive a Graduates degree.

For as long as I remember, my mother always talks about the importance of education. Her passion for education passed down to me.My parents leaving the comfort of their country for The American dream inspires me every day to achieve my dreams.

I am a first generation Mexican-American that comes from humble beginnings and was instilled to work hard to achieve ones dreams. My parents are humble, earnest, and hardworking people that immigrated to the United States in search of a better tomorrow for themselves and for their loved ones back home. Coming to this country was not easy, for they faced many obstacles in getting here and then assimilating into a culture where they knew no one and did not know the language.

Being born of 2 immigrant parents, who work menial jobs and have no education has always had its weight on me. Neither one of my parents are high school graduates and no one in my family has obtained a collegiate education. I have been able to experience first hand how difficult a life with no education is. I recall other students sharing how their parents provided aid with their homework and read to them, knowing I did not get to experience that made me gloomy. I had no other choice but to learn everything on my own and then attempt to teach my parents. This peculiar lifestyle has pushed me harder in academics and has given me a genuine appreciation for the value of an education.

There is an old African adage that states “If you wish to move mountains tomorrow, you must start by lifting stones today”. I am a first generation immigrant to the United States and like many other immigrants who have come before me, moving to a new country literally means starting your life all over again from scratch but symbolically it signifies a rebirth of oneself and a chance to metamorphose into whatever new creature you aspire to be. Some of the challenges I faced included culture shock, language barriers, financial barriers but the most significant one was the education barrier. I quickly realized that if I could bridge the education gap I would be able to overcome all the other barriers. For me having an education epitomized my assimilation into my new life by enabling me to chase my dreams and realize my unique American dream.

Being a Hispanic can have its ups and downs. In today's modern society, there are many racial terms that are put against Hispanics. Examples of these can stretch from calling someone an illegal immigrant to making jokes that we Hispanics ‘all eat tacos’. I don’t know if racism will ever end, but I do know many people are being affected by it. So, what being a Hispanic means for me is to show the world that we are not all this stereotypical drug lord, or murderer. My parents were indeed illegal immigrants at one point. They through many difficult battles to get into this country in hopes of a better life. I want to build on from that, and show how a family from one generation to another can become the next CEO of NASA or President of the United

I was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I learned everything I needed to know there. Everything that has to do with life that is. I started my education there and I will continue it where ever I go. My educational background was just as normal and fun like any other kids. But I was the unique child that made my education different and more enjoyable. My learning process has five processes: elementary, middle, high school, college, and the future.

Throughout my lifetime I have listened to people reflect back on their college experiences and explain how college is supposed to be “the best experience of your life.” The summer after my senior year I use to try and imagine what my first semester was going to be like based on what I had heard people talk about in the past. After my first semester at NC State I realized that I couldn’t fully understand what college was like until I experienced it for myself. My first couple of weeks at Ohio State was rough and really tested my strength (mental and physical). I faced challenges and obstacles that I had never heard about in those past college experience conversations. All of a sudden there was no one to get me out of