Personal Statement #2.

Being involved in my school, community, or anywhere has not always been an easy task for me. I have always been know to be a shy person when it comes to meeting new people and it usually takes time to open up. But over the years my outlook on things have changed and I have became very involved in many organizations.

Ever since I was a child my religion has been something that I have valued deeply. Around the age of 10 I got involved in an organization among my church called, Christian Youth Fellowship, also know as CYF. It is categorized as a spiritual group for kids ages 7-18 to get them more involved in the community and church. We have done many activities such as: make lunches for homeless shelters, sung at nursing homes, held banquet fundraisers, car washes, and many more activities to help us give back to the community. The seven years that I have been in this youth group I have held the title of Secretary, Vice President, and President. My peers were the ones who nominated me to these positions beause they felt that I could take responsibility and lead them in the correct path.

Cheerleading has always been a good way for me to use my cheerful spirit. In the fourth grade I decided to start cheering for my brother's Little League football team and it has been with me all the way through high school. I have been on the squad for all four years of my high school career. The purpose of this group is to expose the student body to an example of having positive school spirit at all times. Whenever the captain is not able to make it to a game, I am always the one appointed to the role of being in charge for that game due to the fact that I have had the most experience on the squad. This shows that I am a very reliable and dedicated person and can always be counted on in the time of need.

Summer Scholars is a more recent organization that I have become a part of. It is a summer program at UNO that helps high acheiving high school seniors get prepared for college. It also has a service learning project at the end of the program to allow us to have a chance to choose what we would like to do as an activity to help the community. This year we will be removing graffiti off of public places that have been vandalized. I have been nominated to serve on the service learning leadership team and help lead the rest of the students along with seven other classmates in making our environment healthier.

Personal Statement.

My mom has been a great influence to many areas of my life. She has been through many adversities which causes her to be an excellent teacher from experience. Through her I have learned the importance of individualism, religion, and education.

I always knew that my mom was different, she always did her own things, her own way, and on her own time. Never once did she follow what everyone else was doing, and be observing this I grew a sense of indvidualism. I used to always want to get the latest pair of shoe, or the new clothing trends, and everytime I would pull out a peice of cash, she would always ask me why I was always trying to do what everyone else does. I had know legit explanation for this, which took me a while to figure out, and once I finally did I looked back at myself and thought of how ridiculous I was; spending my money on something that I would see about fifty other people wearing. It was pointless. I than began realizing that if I continued to act this way, what would be the purpose of me doing anything since someone had already did it; that was not the person I wanted to be. So I started dressing my own way, acting my own way, talking my own way, and doing everything that was possible to be done .. my own way; swagg. In colllege this will be real important because it is a great opportunity to meet new people of different cultures, background, genders, everything. But if you act just the same as the other person, what fun will it be? It will allow me to expand my horizon and maybe expand others, letting them discover all of the secrets my personality hides, and vise versa.

Religion has always been an important factor in my life. Every since I was an embryo my mom has brung mr to church every single Sunday morning. Although when I got older I may not have enjoyed it so much I still went. It became more of a routine, but then it turned into something I actually enjoyed. She introduced me God and told me to always walk by faith and to never ever walk by sight. This meant that whatever I was going through to just nalways have faith that everything was goingto be alright. Even though my sight may percieve something as being difficult, in reality, if I set my mind to it I could do it. She has instilled in my mind to take whatever problems I maybe having to God and He willl take care of it all. College is the perfect time for much stress, temptation, and many sins to occur and using this faith that my mother has brought upon me will help guide me through everything. My religion is basically the foundation of all my essential values.

The last value thatt my mother has guided me to discover is my education. My mom was the youngest of fourteen children and being that the income of the family was not very high, it made the situation worse. My mom graduated high school, but she didn't have the finances or resources to go on to college. This caused her to be a disadvantage in society, seeing that majority of employment is based on one's education. The more education, the more money you made and it was a s simply as that. As of today, nothing has changed, since my mom still never got an education past high school. She is working eight hours a day, to provide for four children. Seeing her live her life from paycheck to paycheck is devestating. Always being stressed about how the bills are going to get paid, what to eat for dinner that day, or how she was going to pay for senior pictures, cheerleading bill, and just everyday exspenses; that is not how I wanted to be living my life. My mom tells me everyday to stay in school, stay focus, and stay on top of my grades becasue they will matter in the future whether you believe it or not. Many people do not succeed in college becasue they don't have the motivation to do so. But seeing that I have the motivation AND will to do so, my college education will excel in many areas.

Transition from High School to College.

The first day of college classes was sort of similar to a first day in my high school. Getting to know you activities, syllabus', and a whole lot of talking from the professor on what the course was going to be like. Everyday after that .. was NOTHING like high school!

The course that I was enrolled in was English 1200, a freshman english class. I knew this wasn't going to be an easy task to finish, but I didn't expect the work that was given. When the teacher handed out the syllabus, I looked through it .. and it finally hit me that my life would be officially controlled by this class. A four and a half page narrative due EVERY week and to read a hundred pages of Barack Obama's, "Dreams from My Father"every week. I barely read my books at Central, so exactly how was I going to find the motivation to read this? My professsor's name was Helen Fountain, and to tell you tthe truth, she got on my last nerve! Everytime she would ask the class a question and someeone answered it, she would ALWAYS ask "How? Why? What do you mean by that?" At times I wish I could just tell her to shut up and just deal with the answer that was given! But of course, I didn't. As the course went on, I realized that the only reason she did that was to get us to think outside the the box and not to give answers that were such cliches.

The study groups were .. alright? I don't really think they helped me much though, except for given me time to read my book when I didn't do it for homework. Other than tha,t the RTA's just told us something contradicting what our professsor had told us the day before. I think if they would have sat in on more of our classes then they would be able to better understand what it was we were supposed to be doing instead of making plans for that particular day, and then having to change them on spot because we either already did it or haven't reached that stage yet.

The campus itself was great overall, except for the parking violation that I recieved. I couldn't find a close student parking area, so I chose to park in the teacher's lot near the library not thinking that they took the time to notice things like that. But of course when I came out of class, I was greeted with a wonder thirty dollar ticket for parking in an unauthorized lot. Lucky for me, I got it waived the next day (: The food on campus was the main attraction! I was not really used to having three meals a day avaliable at school, and an all you can eat buffett at that! But trust, I got well adjusted to that ASAP!

Even though this experience was not what I expected it to be, it introduced me to my bestfriend, prioritization, and my worst enemy, procrastination. Also it showed me college life looking from the inside out when all my life I have been looking from the outside in.

Residential Life With Summer Scholars.

Overrall my stay at Sctott Hall was amazing. I've stayed on different campuses before, but nothing that compared to this experience. Meeting so many new people and interacting with some on a personal level was the best part! I usually come off as an extremely shy person, but it was something about this group of individuals that allowed me to be myself at all times. Even though we could never get through a meeting without going into a new topic every two minutes and stay on the scheduled time .. this group had lots of creative potential.

Joggling classes with Summer Scholar activites itself was extremely frustrating. I'm somewhat used to having lots on my plate dealing with high school, cheerleading, and many clubs.. but nothing prepared me for this! The first couple of days were very chilled and laidback due to the fact that it was the weekend, and classes were the last things on our minds! But then .. it came, the first day of class. Getting that syllabus and turning to the assignment page was the worst! We had to read about 25 pages everynight and there was a narrative paper due every week. The RTA's planned many activities and informatinal meetings throughout the day that were mandatory so having time to study and do the work was limited. I also had to sacrafice two absences of cheerleading practice to be able to attend my classes on time.

My interaction with many of the RTA's were sort of limited, but whenever I did it was usually about informative issues such as what we had to do and when we were expected to do it. When I was first introduced to the advisors I was pretty skeptical on what their personalities would be like. Could I be goofy around them? What would their impression of me be? How well would they relate to me? All these questions were answered withins the first couple of days. Every single one was just like us. Even though they were college students, they weren't uptight about everything as I thought. They made jokes with us, gave us advice, guided us through our days of classes and kept us in line when it was needed. If the RTA's were not present, I don't think as much confidence would have been brought out by the students.

Going home for the first time after five days together was so different.. and lonely, not hearing the laughter and voices in the hallways, not hearing the endless argumentative opinions in our discussions. Life will never be the same after that week, so many wonderful experiences I would never take back. (: