Scholar voice: How higher education will destroy the poverty cycle for me and my community

Growing up in a low -income environment, fears of living a life full of poverty and crime eating my existence. Instead of seeing this feeling as an excuse, I changed it into a motivation to rise over my life and excel as an active member of my community.

With determination, I have contributed to my environmental growth through volunteerism. I continued to volunteer in Ponderosa Elementary School as a class tutor for five years. I also became a mentor for big brothers and sisters at Orange County at Olive St. Elementary School, where I guide “small” assigned, through school and personal problems. I attended the weekly meeting at Olive St. Elementary school and help him with homework and steam activities. Witnessing various problems in my environment motivated me to be a change that I wanted to see by helping in the development of my community. As a result of my voluntary activity and meaningful experience, I found the desire to become a child and family social worker.

As the oldest daughter of the Mexican family, my parents quickly instill the idea of ​​college into my brain. At ten o’clock, my mother worked with me to memorize multiplication charts and train 500 words, which I present to my fifth grade. In secondary school, my father helped me improve my study habits by encouraging me to review my assignment until I was completely satisfied with my job. At the beginning of my secondary school trip, I got the role as a guardian of my two younger siblings, which improved my leadership and time management skills because I balanced my home and school responsibilities. Even though my title as “first eldest” has come with challenges, I will forever be grateful for the life lessons that come.

Although I adopted a strong and successful work ethic as a diligent individual, I faced great ignorance with the process of acceptance of tertiary institutions, the substantial part of becoming a social worker. What surprised me, during my first year, I was invited to a presentation from the Earl Woods TGR Foundation Scholar program. Hearing the benefits of private liberal arts education education and different scholars’ experiences motivated me to apply for the program. After being accepted, I participated in the summer workshop, where I started my personal statement and developed my college preparation skills. Through the summer bulletin, I learned about Questbridge scholarships. When I completed the phase of one application and moved to the finalist sessions one by one with my TGR foundation, JC and Andres, were very helpful. Instead of maneuvering through the Questbridge application process, I turned to them to get help to complete the CSS, Fafsa, short response and application essays. JC and Andres played an important role in my success with the Questbridge College match process. As a first generation student, I feel meaningful that they are more than willing to meet me every day a week to review my application.

The questbridge process is the most severe but useful part of my college acceptance journey; This helps me match Macalester College and get a full scholarship. As a social worker in the future, I feel that the mission of the Macalester College towards the involvement of the most in harmony with my career. This is home to many clubs that specialize in community activism, such as habitat for humanity organizations that work with fellow organizations to build homes every year. I am the most looking forward to being part of the Macalester College Department of Sociology which is trying to have a positive impact on the college campus and the surrounding community. The ratio of students-to-faculties and research opportunities at Macalester College will help strengthen my oral communication, write, critical thinking and interpersonal skills to develop as social workers.

Obtaining private liberal art education at Macalester College will help me advance in my future career by achieving research skills that are important to assess the needs of individuals who are less served. Most importantly, pursuing my title at Macalester College will help me beat the stereotype of living in a low -income environment. My desire to pursue a career in the child’s welfare system has only grown, and I will continue to fight against losses for low-income communities as voices for children and families.