Some personal insights about me:

Sometimes it's hard for people to think highly of themselves, but I like to affirm that I am a very
determined person when it comes to interests and investments. Not that long ago, I started my
nail business, not necessarily for the income but for my enjoyment of doing nails and learning
how to interact with others. This business is the start of something big that I plan to do, and it
has helped me understand marketing more in depth. The marketing courses I took helped me
promote and manage the money I have earned. These essential skills help me continue to
invest time and money into growing my business and apply what I am learning in my marketing
class to real life. I have so many goals that I would love to accomplish, and I know I have to
work hard for them. Patience is key, and I’ve learned to have that skill. I know how to
communicate with people in certain situations, especially when I have a strong feeling about
something. I believe I know how to use the right words. I also believe that I have a skill for
problem solving. I love to come up with ideas to fix things myself; if I struggle, I start getting
invested to find a solution for the issue and learn how to fix the problem. When I talk about this
with others or sit down and think of these things, I always go back to remembering my passion
for becoming a lawyer. I want to be able to protect people and be the voice that they cannot be
for themselves. I want to learn how to be a strong person, and I think that career will help me in
the long run as a person. I believe that being a lawyer will help me see the other side of a
person, especially in a vulnerable situation, and will help me learn to speak up for myself
because, even though I do have strong features, along with everyone else, we all have areas for
improvement.

During my sophomore year, I struggled the most academically. Looking back at it now, I’ve
realized that it had to do with my mental health and that I was in the process of learning how to
deal with it and find ways that helped me organize my life and thoughts better. I started to get
behind on my work, and I stopped doing my work. I was overwhelmed, and I felt like I was going
through a lot of stress and pressure to always do my best. It started with some missing
assignments that I told myself I would do later so that I wouldn’t feel like I had a lot to do in one
day. I developed the mentality of choosing my mental health before school, so if I felt
overwhelmed, I would decide not to do my work, and that is how my assignments continued to
pile up. Not only did it affect me at school but also at home; I would do absolutely nothing at
home, which is not good at all. I liked to go out a lot with my cousin, even if it was to get a bag of
chips. I liked to distract myself from the things I had to get done because school was always in
the back of my head. I don’t mean to exaggerate. In the long run, this whole thing would affect
me negatively. I was still able to pass my classes at the high school level, but not at the college
level, so I had to do something about that. I took the initiative to retake my classes for a better
grade and create a schedule for myself to focus on what is important, which is school, and this
helped me to be more organized in general. I’ve realized this is the process of life, and everyone
goes through their own challenges, and it’s a good thing to try and overcome them because the
outcome of passing the challenge is great.
I have recently had to overcome a big educational barrier as a first-generation student. I am the
only child whose parents didn’t receive much school education. I’ve had to learn how to
navigate the educational system on my own and without any guidance from my family. I have,
however, had the opportunity to take advantage of the AVID program offered in both my middle
school and high school. I learned to be more organized by taking and annotating notes to go
back and review. The teacher and the tutors are of great help when you are in doubt and give
you advice on how to solve schoolwork problems. The tutors are there for support, and the
teacher gives us the opportunity to take TRF days to get that extra help. As a first-generation
student, I have really taken advantage of all the support AVID has provided. Personally, I cannot
do my homework at home because I get easily distracted, so I prefer to be in a different place.
AVID provides me with a class period for exactly that. Not only do I like it because it makes me
feel comfortable, but I also like the fact that I am part of a learning community. In my opinion, to
maintain a good balance, it’s important to have a good social life as well as an academic life.
AVID has become a community, and I am able to talk to most of the people in my classroom
comfortably since I have been in the same environment as them for years. Especially this year,
it has been a really big support due to the stress that applying to colleges brings. I get notified of
different opportunities, such as the workshops and UC presentations we have been having. I get
excited for all of this, but it also does seem intimidating. I like listening to what the UCs have to
offer and am also excited to see what the future holds for me.

One of the talents I consider myself to be skilled in would have to be being empathetic. You can
have plenty of conversations with people, but it is not very common for them to really know how
to be empathetic and really put themselves in other people’s shoes. I understand that empathy
comes easy to some, but it doesn’t to all. Empathy is a skill I have unknowingly been working on
ever since I was a child. I was always the peacekeeper in my friend group. I made sure
everyone had a chance to express themselves in an argument and helped them move past the
issue. As a high school senior, I feel like I have had to use my empathy skills to really be there
for my friends. Many of us are in the process of planning the next step in our lives. A lot of us
are juggling between what we want for ourselves and what our families want for us. I was raised
by a single mother, who has always pushed me to be the best version of myself. When I was
younger, I misinterpreted her “encouragement” as unnecessary pressure. It was not until I was
mindfully empathetic with my mother that I understood why she was always pushing me to
pursue something greater than myself. She did not want me to struggle to make ends meet like
she did. Having the skill and talent of being an empathetic person provides me with so many
different perspectives. I wholeheartedly believe having different perspectives is how you best
understand and help others. I also believe being empathetic results in having other great skills
like being able to work well with others, being a problem solver, and being able to come up with
quick, effective action plans.