1.

Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others,
helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time.

Leadership is not something everyone is born with. Some may have to work and experience many
situations to finally gain the knowledge of what it means to be a leader. I know this because I had to go
through many feats to be able to call myself a leader. I had to get out of my comfort zone and become an
outgoing person. People needed to be able to lean on me in their times of need. I had to become a
responsible person who wasn’t so closed off. Peer Tutoring was a program that allowed myself and my
peers to help other students with homework, studying, reviews and more. Being a peer tutor meant I
helped other students stay accountable when it came down to finishing their work. My senior year, I
became the President of Peer Tutoring. I kept these students focused, even if it meant I was disliked. My
goal was to get these students the proper help they needed while also trying to be a friend. I know many
people don’t like coming to tutoring because it may be embarrassing for them, but when they do, I’m
there to help. Not only was I a peer tutor, I was the President of the program and club which meant that
not only did I have to keep the students working, but the other peer tutors as well. I needed to run the
program in a way where everyone would be held accountable for the hours that they needed to put in. I
was in charge of setting up our weekly meetings as well as keeping track of who goes to our meetings. I
was the leader who was there for my peers whilst also keeping them accountable for everything
regarding the program. I kept my program running in the best possible way to help my peers and the
students who stepped up and asked for help. My leadership skills haven’t always been the best, but I can
say I’ve grown to be that leader that brings positivity to others.

4. Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to
overcome an educational barrier you have faced.

The biggest educational barrier I ever had to face was Covid-19. Things happened so fast and it being my
first year ever experiencing high school meant I had no clue how things were going to go. I was a
freshman so I thought school was going to get so much easier because it meant that we had free time
and didn’t have to go to school, boy was I wrong. During the months of being on Zoom for the first time
ever, my grades really took a hit. I went from being this student with a 3.97 gpa to one with a 3.69 gpa.
At that moment, I knew I had to get myself back on track. I wanted to be the girl with good grades, not
the one with average grades. Knowing the next year would also be online, gave me a reality check. There
was no teacher to keep me accountable, so I had to learn to keep myself accountable and how to pay
attention in a new environment. I began giving myself goals, getting organized, and trying to unplug from
my phone during school and homework. I started tutoring, studying more, and sleeping a full 9 hours to
avoid sleeping in class. Asking to get a tutor made me feel like I was an embarrassment, but I knew it was
something I needed to succeed. Getting through my entire sophomore year online was hard because I
felt as if I never got to experience a real high school experience since my first year was cut short and my
second was a totally new concept that no one had really experienced before. Then was my junior year,
one of the most difficult years for a high school student. That was my first full year of high school. I not
only had to get used to the new schedule and environment, but the fact that we were still vulnerable to
Covid and had to wear masks the entire day. We put our lives on the line to keep learning and the
disease only kept getting worse.

5. 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?

Growing up and watching my parents constantly fight was a roller coaster of emotions. It was one of my
biggest challenges. Waking up in the middle of the night to hear yelling as a little kid put a lot of strain on
my self esteem as a little kid. I had always blamed myself for anything that happened between my
parents because I felt as if it was my responsibility to be the glue and bond for the family, even as a little
kid who didn’t understand anything. After a while of growing up to believe everything was my fault, I
began to start projecting these insecurities onto my friends, which wasn’t the healthiest thing to do for
my friendships. I began losing friends for constantly projecting my insecurities onto them and it ended
up putting a bigger dent into my self esteem. I began to think that I wasn’t good enough and self harmed
myself some days. My life had gotten really dark and I had become a person I couldn’t even recognize
anymore. It took a year of feeling self doubt and hardship that I started to think that I wanted to better
myself. My friends and family knew I was going through a dark time and tried their best to help me pave
my way to get to a better place. I never thought I could get to the place I am now, but I did it. I made it
and I am proud of myself and what is to come. There will always be a part of me that has low self
esteem, but I have learned to see that it is not how you see an issue, it’s how you handle it. Being able to
know that I am no longer the issue and that people experience everything for a reason, I learned to feel
better about myself. I started being a mediator for my parents and that had helped with the issues that
were being experienced. I learned that if you can help someone else feel better, it can help you feel
better.

6. Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest
inside and/or outside of the classroom.

Math has always been an inspiring factor for the way I viewed school. It was always just that subject that
I knew I was good at. It was something that I actually liked doing. Over the years math got harder and as I
got older I knew that math would be the interest I pursued. In highschool I struggled with where I would
go when it came down to majors, schools and everything else. However, I joined a virtual enterprise class
that changed my life. I started to learn about the tools I would need for the real world, it gave me a taste
of what I knew I wanted to become. Knowing I loved math and virtual enterprise, I started to research
the careers where I could deal with both. I found the business administration major to be the best fit. I
had also previously worked in jobs dealing with what I would have to know for my future. This included
Excel, organization skills, time management and more. I’m not going to lie, this took a huge toll on me as
I found it hard to work 9 to 5 and still have enough time to hangout with my friends without passing my
curfew. Even though working was hard, I did it. I fell in love with working in an office with other people.
Just getting a taste of that I knew I would pursue it. My family has members in these fields and since I
knew I wanted to get into these majors, I started researching and asking about how their days looked
along with how much stress they had. Even before I knew I had to start looking for what I wanted to do
for the rest of my life, I knew I wanted math to be a part of it. Up until high school, I never knew how
much math meant to me until I found myself always wanting to work on it. It was the only class I worked
hard to get placed in for a higher class. It was my biggest priority.