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PERSONAL STATEMENS
Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time.
Personally I feel like during my four years of high school most of my leadership skills I gained were from my ASB class. Coming into Lindsay High School as a freshman I really loved every single event that the student would do, from a simple t-shirt selling to planning huge events like the blood drive, or every rally. After that, I became convinced I wanted to be involved so I joined my leadership class. Here, my advisor gave me tips that really helped me lead a group of 60 students or even more, I got to plan rallies, blood drives, football games etc. I quickly learned how to be able to communicate with others and if there is a problem to think quickly and exchange ideas with others in order to find the best solution possible. Besides school I also learned independent leadership skills at home. Being the oldest of three my parents quickly taught me how to do things for myself and to always stick up for myself and be an independent young lady. Since I was about 13 years old I started taking care of my siblings, I started to work in the fields and eventually I got a job at the migrant education program as a student tutor once I began my sophomore year in high school. I can honestly say that being a tutor, a leader at my own school and also a very balanced, strong support for my parents has taught me a lot, and these skills will stick with me forever.
What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time?
To be honest, there was a period of time in my life where I didn’t really feel like I had what you call a “special” talent, but after I started to make new friends in high school and after I started to get more involved I realized I did have quite a few talents after all. These talents include being able to pursue someone or a group of people into a certain topic or club or organization, another talent was the fact that I realized I am able to lead a huge group of people in order to reach a specific goal, and my most important, which I also consider special talent, is my ability to help people. Honestly, I wasn’t a very social person back in the day but after a while I realized that I needed to communicate if I wanted to survive in this world. After a couple months of getting out of my comfort zone I noticed that I love to help people, I love to talk to everyone and be friends with everyone. Considering the fact that I tutor kids from all grades my ability to help people grew more and more. Developing this so called talent, I started to see so many opportunities coming to my door, from different school activities to job opportunities.
Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
The biggest barrier I have faced and I still continue to face it is the fact that my dad isn’t with me or my family. My father doesn’t have his residency in the United States; therefore he can’t come and support us as much as he would want to. It has been really hard for me to not have a dad figure in my life as much as I want too; I had to face a little bit of bullying in middle school from kids in my grade and even from my own family. Thankfully, I have a wonderful mother who was always a mom and dad to me and always worked her best to give me and my siblings the best that she could give us, and I will be forever thankful for that. An educational opportunity that has really benefited me is the migrant educational program. This program is specifically for migrant students whose parents work in the fields. In this program, they really helped me school wise with tutors and trips to many colleges including Fresno State and UC Riverside. They also gave me the opportunity to join work study, which is where I work every day after school for two hours and I just tutor kids from Pre-K to 8th grade. This program has really helped me and my family a lot giving us many opportunities that not a lot of kids have for several reasons. I have really tried my best to really take good advantage of this program for my own good and I’m thankful I got to join.
What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
I feel like I have made my community a better place by helping a lot with community service and a lot of volunteer work. These include always helping with school events that are open to all public like blood drives and football games; I also had the chance to help out at many community events such as dinners, fundraisers, and a special Christmas event which we call “Santa Night” where we gather toys for both boys and girls and we give them toys and they have to opportunity to meet Santa Clause. During this night we also have a little parade and we have out free hot drinks and cookies for everyone. I currently also work with the migrant education program and I work as a tutor helping students from pre-k all the way to 8th grade.