First, before we start, I’d like to thank the team at SA2020 for making my first day so special and warming, and for making me feel so welcomed. Thank you, I will forever grateful.
How did I end up at SA2020? I received an e-mail from my mentor from Clubhouse to Careers, Sara Santiago, to apply to SA2020. I was a bit nervous at first, mainly because of such a big name and the fancy title of Content and Communications Intern, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to interview. Sara described it as a perfect fit for my personality and my path as a future educator in San Antonio. Sara went on to elaborate on SA2020, going along the lines of its great programs, community outreach surveys and so much more. Now, after I’ve met the enthusiastic and warm team for SA2020, my summer will be one for the books.
Helping the city of San Antonio, and being part of the history of San Antonio’s development as both a society and developing humanity, will always stand out and help me gain a new perspective on how and why people do what they do in their own communities. My motive and inspiration for being the Content and Communications Intern is to refer my peers, friends, and family to resources they might have not heard of to guide them along the path of success. I want to help change lives and strengthen my community by offering resources to issues that would be severe, if I cannot personally help them, I know programs and people who can actually give professional help.
Growing up near Woodlawn park and attending Fenwick Elementary, Villareal Elementary, KIPP Camino, Sul Ross Middle School and finally Thomas Jefferson High School, has helped me build a better person for myself and an outlook onto the world to seek better opportunities and to let the universe guide you to the place you need to be, as it ALWAYS has a plan. I’ve had my blissful highs and my darkest lows, which have helped me to become the person I am today, to take each lesson that I’ve learned throughout my bittersweet years of high school that there is always a solution to a problem, and there are always resources to help.
As a survivor of depression and anxiety, I’ve learned to overcome the stigma and stereotype of my mental illnesses and to grow spiritually and mentally to become both a better person for you, and a better one for the world—and that everyone has a purpose in this life. To capitalize on my strengths as a passionate and eager learner, I will be attending Texas A&M San Antonio for Pre-Education and will also study visual arts to become a secondary (middle school-high school) teacher. It has been a passion and vision for myself to teach our future generations, and not to be the average art teacher. I want to fully enrich my future students, and tackle their weaknesses to turn into strengths they can apply to later on in their lives. I also dream of teaching in my former high school, Thomas Jefferson, to give back to my community and show my Mustang Pride. This is how I will fulfill my purpose as a community leader and neighbor.
Strengthening my community is to acknowledge our mistakes, grow from them, and apply them in places where they need help. No one is perfect, not one city or house is perfect either, but we as a community and as San Antonians can strive for that near-perfect image in our minds for a stronger and healthier San Antonio—and I’m proud to be part of the development of my own home and future.
