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When I was young politics never really interested me, but as I have seen more of the real world problems I have become more aware of what party stands for what. My family has always been democratic and I do think their beliefs influenced mine since I also am Democratic. Growing up my family allowed me to believe what I wanted to, but I was always allowed to listen in their “grown up” conversations which I believe allowed me me to form my own opinions.

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My family is all from Monterrey, Mexico and I consider my Mexican side a big part of my culture. Growing up I learned to cook all my favorite mexican dishes such as tamales, mole, and enchiladas. Cooking with my grandma was one of my favorite things to do as well as watching telenovelas once a week. My cousins and I also would visit Mexico every summer which that made us connect with our culture since we got to experience that as we grew into young adults. To this day, we still embrace our culture and get together and cook our favorite Mexican dishes.

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I identify with she/her pronouns and I feel like being a girl has impacted me since I am your typical “girly” girl who grew up playing with dolls and barbies. I dressed really cute, and I believe that I kind of still do. I grew up with just my mom and have always had a great woman to look up to and I feel strongly about how powerful woman are because I see what all my mom did as a single mom.

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My whole life I’ve been one of those nerdy shy kids. Straight A’s all the way until I got to college. I did attend public schools, and had a great learning experience all twelve years.  My schools have definitely impacted me and my development since I have always been around students who were set up to go to college. My high school had dual credit which was a great way to get college credit and on the track for college readiness. Thankfully I followed that track and ended up at the best University!

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I feel that I definitely grew up in the lower class with a single mom, but as she got a better job and with all the family support we moved up to the middle class. This has made me appreciative of everything my mom has done for me and I feel that it made me hardworking. I have had a job since 15 years old. I’ve done restaurants, babysitting, stores, pretty much a little bit of everything. I want to keep working hard in school and in my job right now in order to be successful and give back to my mom.

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I have been a Christian for as long as I remember and I still am to this day. My faith is a big part of me and it makes me who I am. I grew up going to bible study and vacation bible school which was great for growing up around other young Christians. We all positively influenced each other and it has been so good to have faith in college when times get tough.

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I grew up learning Spanish first, and then English. This was great because I could go to Mexico and play with all my cousins while being able to communicate with everyone. Being bilingual has opened a lot of doors and I hope to teach my kids Spanish one day too.

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My first two years of life I lived in a small apartment with just my mom. However, we moved to a very nice gated community called Waterview when I was about 3 years. It had a park, volleyball court, pools, golf course and a great place for a family. We moved in with my Grandma and Grandpa and if it wasn’t for them, we would most likely have stayed in the apartments. The neighborhood I grew up in definitely impacted me since I really only had white friends and grew up wanting the newest toys and technology since a lot of them could afford that. I made a lot of friends, but definitely not any with my background.