Jose Crespo Accomplishments

Growing up, parents, teachers, and elders always emphasize the importance of an education to the younger generations. High school students are pushed and encouraged towards college for the next big step in their life. By the time kids step into high school it’s drilled into their heads that to make something of oneself they need to pursue a college education. In reality, are high school graduates even prepared for the challenges that they will soon face? High schools are not preparing their kids for the “college experience” that in turns leaves them lacking the know-how they will need for the workforce.

My mother worked four jobs at once to make financial ends meet, while always stressing the importance of education and financial independence to my brother and myself. My grandmother only achieved a second grade education due to the financial constraints on her family at a young age, but still in the end managed to make certain that of her children and grandchildren had what was needed to flourish and become successful, educated members of the community. The tenacity and history of these two women I still carry with me today. Their struggles have inspired to me to only want more from life, but also serve as a positive role model for the younger members of my community. I observed from other family members how an education can open a multitude of doors and opportunities. I want to make the biggest and most significant on my community and on my family as possible, and the only foreseeable path is to achieve a college education to gain the necessary skills, knowledge and connections needed to flourish and implement positive

From a very early age, I always assumed it was a part of my future to pursue an education. The American educational system engraves the importance of school at a very young age. Elementary school children are motivated through rewards when they try their hardest to reach their goals. Students are exposed to statistics and facts outlining the consequences of not getting a college degree as soon as they reach middle school. High school counselors and staff make it their priority to ensure that students apply to college. Students are conditioned to believe that education is the building block to a successful future. My cultural upbringing did not support my choice to pursue an education, however, I refused to conform to my family’s behavioral expectations because certain norms must be challenged due to progressive time periods and conflicting values.

Throughout my schooling, I have worked to great lengths to maintain a GPA that exceeds 3.75 and qualifies me for the National Honors Society. My performance in school is my priority

As a young child, I learned that education would be beneficial to not only myself but also all humankind. Growing up in a Northeast Florida housing project my father and mother did the best they could to raise nine children. My father worked seven days a week in the service industry as a waiter and bartender while my mother worked as a domestic employee in the homes of more affluent people in the south. My father had an eleventh grade education and my mother had not passed the tenth grade before she bore her first child. Neither parent completed high school but they had dreams of their children far exceeding their educational accomplishments. I was child eight of the nine and I knew early on that I did not want to live

Ever since I started to seriously think about my future, I had aspirations of getting a degree and becoming a professional. Specific careers have changed constantly, ranging from becoming a teacher to an engineer. As I got older, I began to assess my strengths and weaknesses as well as my likes and dislikes. I know a college education is essential in today’s economy and society. Doors are opened to those with college degrees and a better lifestyle is guaranteed. A college education is not only economically beneficial but intellectually as well, for it provides a unique learning experience as it caters to an individual’s interests

Knowing the struggles my ancestors have prevailed upon to provide me the opportunity to pursue my dreams is humbling. They’ve taught me that education is power. I was able to understand its magnitude by becoming an English teacher to students from a local underprivileged public school. I had been capable of reminding them that they are entitled to dream, simply by giving them the knowledge and opportunity to think outside of the box. As I move on to college, I hope to continue to empower individuals through education, providing them the opportunity that my great-grandmother wished for but did not have. Despite the tumultuous path to accepting and understanding myself, I know that college will be another colorful fragment to the patchwork of my

The purpose of life is to attain happiness, and it is said that we do so by getting a valued education, a career that helps cultivate society, obtaining a life partner and bringing up a family to pass down the legacy of one’s achievements. Most people believe that the more education one has, the more opportunities will come quickly and the easier life will be. As young people, we are always told this by parents, teachers, and within the media. As college students seek a college education and pursue higher degrees, they still struggle to obtain work in their field. Instead, they accumulate a mountain of debt and most must rely on the support of their families. Unlike the traditional belief that education opens the doors to opportunities, it is my belief that social connections and experience are what grants a person opportunities so that they can achieve their goals.

There is no greater fortune than being surrounded by those who are smarter than you. The most compelling part of my academic career was being in a learning environment with peers that have the greatest ambitions. Contrary to my experience at school, my home life laxed on competitive spirit. Unlike most immigrant upbringings, my family was cautious about taking risks. This does not at all mean I grew up in a lazy environment; in fact, I have met very few people as hardworking as my parents. However, when a 7 year old me exclaimed my desire to attend a big university, my family told me to think “realistically.” That moment stuck with me and sparked something that I do not believe anyone saw in me before: my ambition.

During my senior year of high school, my father and I started to discuss my future plans and goals, and that’s when he changed my perception on the importance of education. He explained all the hardships he faced and shared with me stories of instances where he made avoidable mistakes due to his lack of higher education. Although he managed to turn his life around, he had no doubt that he would’ve been more successful if he was educated. My father inspired me to be the first in the family to complete a higher level education and take over the family business one day.

I was raised by parents who had different educational backgrounds. My mother has never gone to high school or college. Although she was smart, mentally agile and very independent, she finished only middle school and worked as a farmer, and in the later of her life, as a manual worker at a wine company. She told me that she could not go to school because her family was too poor, and she was told that a woman doesn’t need to study. My father, on the other hand, was a person who insisted on pursuing higher education despite many obstacles in his life. He lost his mother who died from breast cancer when he was not yet 3 years old. His father raised him and his two brothers and a sister by the farming job. My father persisted in the belief that education was the key to change his

Since a very young age I understood the importance of having an education. Growing up in a very poor and undereducated neighborhood, I saw education as a way out as opposed to a waste of time. In a community where the educated were poor and the criminals were rich it was very easy to become distracted. I grew up with neither my mother nor father to look up to, as I was raised solely by my grandparents. So many obstacles only pushes me harder. I always looked to myself to be an inspiration to both my family and community that completing college and having a career isn’t as difficult as it may seem.

I have grown up in a low income, single-parent family, and am the first person in my immediate family to attend college. I always knew growing up that I wanted more for myself; I wanted to be something more, something bigger. I didn’t know what exactly I wanted, or how I was going to make this a reality, all I had were all these dreams and aspirations of becoming so much more than what I came from. My parents were both high school dropouts, as I eventually came to be. I didn’t get the start that I had imagined, but I soon made the decision that it had come time for me to do whatever it would take to make my dreams come true.

When I was 22 years of age, I walked through graduation ceremonies at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, CA. It was a proud day for my mom in addition to many of my relatives who were present because I had overcome one of the greatest hurdles in a young man’s life: A college degree. I could now get a job in the “real world” and the “real world” was now my oyster. Unfortunately, that world did not actually exist for me because I did not actually have my degree. In fact, I found out the “hard way” that not having a degree significantly inhibits your opportunities in life as well as one’s income.

Being born and raise in the small isle of Antigua, there are not a lot of job opportunities to unskilled workers. As I grew up, I practiced to excel in my entire subject areas and do my best in all that I chose to do and I ended out on top. At the age of four, although a young kid, I was being molded into what will become the refined me. During that period, it proved no significance to me what happens educationally. At that age, the