My undergraduate experience

Throughout my undergraduate career, I was often asked about my plans for the future. They would ask, are you pursuing a master's degree or taking a year off to gain more experience. Usually, my answer was to pursue an MBA or a Ph.D. in Economics: however, I never felt passionate about neither of those two focuses. The reason my focus shifted was because I was not planning to pursue my passion but my family's. As a sophomore at the University of La Verne I found my passion. I found my passion by reflecting on my extracurricular activities, I felt so much enjoy from supporting students through cultural, social and professional development events that my organizations and I coordinated.

I have truly realized that my heart is in higher education because I love supporting students throughout their college career. I want to obtain a Master's and then a Doctoral degree in higher education to land my dream career, which is becoming Dean of Student Affairs at the college. I was indecisive about my future career however, I was extremely thankful for all the changes I went through to find my calling. I chose higher education as my calling because I saw the amazing influence and impact on students especially generation students. As a sophomore and junior student, I was part of 8 student lead organizations whose mission is to advocate on the behalf of our student body.

Through my involvement at the University of La Verne, I have learned the true meaning of diversity, inclusion, and leadership which are important to the dynamic field of higher education. Being part of the Latino Student Forum, an organization that promotes the Latino culture and advocates for the needs of our Latino students, I was fortunate enough to be selected as Director of Programming, this position continued to enable me to learn about my culture and showcase our Latino culture through events. As Director, I was also able to coordinate meetings where we discussed the limited resources that were accessible to us and the term Hispanic Serving Institute vs Hispanic Enrolling Institute. Through these experiences, I could learn the needs of our students and one need that is important to me is starting a Latina sorority on campus.