Personal Statement

Growing up in the mission district I was surrounded by poverty and working class citizens. I attended elementary school on Treasure Island. Every morning I would ride the school bus with my friends. We would pass by the financial district and I remember wanting to be like the people I saw walking down those streets. I wanted to one day walk around with my business attire and leather black bag. While I observed all these professionals head to work, in the background I would hear my friends talk about their goals. Some of these children aspired to be hair dressers, house cleaners and cooks like their parents. They would completely ignore everything that I would observe. This is when I realized that I wanted to be something different. This was the inception to my motivation.

As the years passed by my motivation grew stronger. It was in the eighth grade when I saw my family try to build their own business. Seeing them struggle financially because of the lack of guidance triggered curiosity in me. That was when I realized that these lower income citizens didn’t have access to the resources necessary to receive financial guidance. I wanted to help out my community and family in the future with their small businesses from going out of business, but at this point I wasn’t quite sure how.

In high school I was a very motivated and ambitious student. I was very opened minded as to what I wanted to study or what I wanted my career to be. I went from volunteering for a plastic surgeon to shadowing a psychologist. I was lucky to have these fortunate opportunities in my life. After graduating high school I decided to enroll myself in a community college to further explore my options. There I took a variety of different classes that helped me see what different careers had to offer.

Throughout my college years I have always had a part- time job. This is where school became challenging for me. As I grew older so did my responsibilities. Learning to budget my finances and time was difficult but a learning experience. About a year in a half ago is when I realized what career path I wanted to go for. I was offered to be administrator assistant for a construction office. Here the controller was able to teach me some accounting and business management skills. This is when I realized that the business/finance field would allow me to help my community in ways I have always wanted to. This journey may have taken me longer to get here. My path probably had a few bumps and turns, but every experience that I have gone through has molded me into who I am now.