1. What would you say is your greatest talent or skill?

How have you

developed and demonstrated that talent over time?
I believe my greatest skill I have is being bilingual, I speak English
and Spanish. I have developed this skill by getting more experience
throughout my childhood and teenage years. I grew up in a Hispanic
household which means my parents and most of my family mostly
speak only Spanish. During my childhood, I always had trouble
speaking Spanish because I was just so use to speaking English
because of school. I realized one day that I had to learn how to speak
Spanish because it was part of me, my family, and my culture. Learning
all the words was just so difficult, I knew some words but when I would
speak it like in a conversation, I would not know how to pronounce, or
sometimes it would be just me not knowing how to say certain words to
continue the conversation. I ended up learning and getting more use to
speaking Spanish, and since then it has given me many opportunities
such as being able to translate for my parents when they need help
with English words they don't know. My parents always come to me
when they need help with reading a paper that's in English, they come
to me for I can translate it for them in Spanish. They tell me that they do
this often because they want me to be experienced in translating for
when I go into the Medical Field. I did take Spanish classes, Spanish Read
and Write, and also Medical Spanish. Those classes made me develop my
Spanish even more and I learned many new words that I didn't know.
Being bilingual can definitely give me many opportunities in the future
such as job opportunities and opportunities to help people or my family
out. I am very honored that I was able to develop this skill and I am also
honored to be able to know my language now because it brought many
benefits to me.
2. Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational
opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have
faced?
The time I worked to overcome an educational barrier I have faced
was the time when I wasn't focused in school at all. During this time, there was
so much going on in my life that made me just so unmotivated. It was very
challenging for me because I had goals I wanted to accomplish but being
unmotivated wasn't going to take me to accomplish those goals. During those
hard times, I completely lost myself and I didn't even know who I was because I
would hardly do anything all day in general but also, I would hardly do my
school work. . I learned how to overcome it by realizing that I needed help, I
received the help I needed was talking to someone which is a counselor.
Talking to a counselor definitely decreased the way I was feeling, I also
learned other techniques such as talking to the people I trust. I took all the
negative out of my life, and just took the time to focus on myself for a while.
Also, I brought the positive in me by someone very special in my life helping me
with that by talking to me about motivation but also, seeing motivational
videos really brought me more positive. These techniques helped me but
didn’t mean that the problems went away, I would sometimes feel
unmotivated and drained but at those moments I would just repeat the same
techniques that helped me. This challenge has definitely changed me in a
good way and taught me how to stay motivated. It changed me because
regardless of the things I was going through, I still managed to get up and
stay motivated. Overall, I take this challenge as a lesson or something I will
never forget because it has brought me this far from where I am right now.
The thing that really made me overcome this challenge was the goals I want
to achieve and accomplish.
3. Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps
you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge
affected your academic achievement?
The most significant challenge I have faced is dealing with anxiety.
I don't quite remember when I got diagnosed with anxiety and why I got
anxiety but it was about last year. It all began when I started to feel very
nervous and worried about everything, I will also feel so scared about
everything and overthink so much. I also got diagnosed with social anxiety,
that started when I was so nervous to talk in front of the class or people or
when I would present in front of the class, I would get extremely nervous and
scared almost like getting anxiety attacks. The steps I took to overcome this
challenge is by talking to a counselor, the counselor definitely helped me
because she gave me techniques to help me with it. The techniques that
helped me that she will give me is breathing, it tense to relax me and just not
feel overwhelmed about everything. She also gave me techniques such as
distracting myself and keep my mind off of thinking so much because
overthinking was a big problem for me especially. I was always a very friendly
person and I love to talk but this anxiety would make me be less social. It has
defiantly changed my personality and the way I think because I did notice as
soon as I started feeling the symptoms. This challenge affected my academic
achievement because as I said, overthinking while this challenge was very
overwhelming so it will distract me from all the school work. Having anxiety is
very challenging and stressful because you feel like everything is wrong but
I’m glad I learned how to deal with it. I take this as an experience because it
was something new for me but also, I learned so much such as learning to
deal with something that is so serious and difficult.
4. Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you
have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom?
An academic subject that inspires me is Medical Spanish. This
academic subject inspires me because it's two things that have to do with my
goals, it's medical which has to do with my dream job and it's Spanish which is
one of the languages I speak. One of my goals was always having Spanish as
more opportunities for my dream job such as more job opportunities. Medical
is something that has to do with my future because I want to become a
Certified Register Nurse Anesthetist when I grow up which is considered a
goal I have. It was always a dream of mine to become some kind of nurse
growing up and I would always want to prepare myself before anything. I
took this class my Junior year and I learned certain medical terms translated
in Spanish, it was honestly very difficult. Most medical terms were just very
hard to pronounce and spell because it all has to do with prefixes and
suffixes which is putting words together to make one. This class was also a lot
of teamwork which I can imagine why because going to the medical field is
also a lot of teamwork. This academic subject is going to help me prepare for
the future because many job opportunities look for speaking two languages. I
believe it's a big benefit to learn this academic subject because it means
translating for a doctor or even speaking it when someone doesn't speak
English. It's something that interests me also because it would motivate me
that I’m actually doing something amazing such as helping people with
translations. This academic subject overall will really prepare me for what's
coming my way in the future and I glad I took this academic subject for I can
know what's coming and what I have to expect.