I am a sophomore political science major and I want to become a lawyer because the legal field is very male-dominated and there are even fewer women of color in the legal field. I, being a woman of color, plan to do as much as I possibly can to help underrepresented people through being an attorney. Firstly, I want to be able to serve as an example so I can show kids that you don't need to come from a super well-off family to be able to have a great career and give back. I want my hard work to be something that the younger generation can look up to and know that if I can do it so can they. I also want to go into public interest law so that I can serve communities that cannot afford attorneys so that they still get good representation. This all is so important to me because I've had to search high and low to find mentors and people able to guide me through higher education and breaking into the professional world. It has been even more challenging to find people who look like me and can tell me what it is like in the professional world. I know how discouraging it is to feel like you don't have anyone to turn to when you're the first in your family to go to college so there is no one even at home that can help. These challenges haven't stopped me and I don't want them to stop anyone else. That is why I want to be a mentor and someone to guide the younger generation through the tricky world of higher education and going into the professional world. Going into public interest law is also a passion of mine because it is known that the more money you have the better lawyer you can afford. This often results in richer people being able to get great representation and poorer people not being able to afford such great representation. That often results in judges and juries not getting the full stories and people getting unfair sentences because they were unable to have their cases fairly tried in court. I believe one of the fundamental principles of this country is making sure everyone has a fair trial and I want to help uphold that to the best of my abilities. I truly believe that I can be the change that I want to see and if I can even help one little girl realize that she can chase her dreams, I will know that all of the hard schooling and long nights up studying has been worth it. I want to use the privilege of an education that I have to make sure that everyone, no matter their socioeconomic status, has access to exceptional representation and someone to look up to and with the help of this scholarship, I will be able to achieve that goal. Thank you for the opportunity to apply for this scholarship and for your time and consideration.

I am a sophomore political science major and I want to become a lawyer because the legal field is very male-dominated and there are even fewer women of color in the legal field. I, being a woman of color, plan to do as much as I possibly can to help underrepresented people through being an attorney. Firstly, I want to be able to serve as an example so I can show kids that you don't need to come from a super well-off family to be able to have a great career and give back. I want my hard work to be something that the younger generation can look up to and know that if I can do it so can they. I also want to go into public interest law so that I can serve communities that cannot afford attorneys so that they still get good representation. This all is so important to me because I've had to search high and low to find mentors and people able to guide me through higher education and breaking into the professional world. It has been even more challenging to find people who look like me and can tell me what it is like in the professional world. I know how discouraging it is to feel like you don't have anyone to turn to when you're the first in your family to go to college so there is no one even at home that can help. These challenges haven't stopped me and I don't want them to stop anyone else. That is why I want to be a mentor and someone to guide the younger generation through the tricky world of higher education and going into the professional world. Going into public interest law is also a passion of mine because it is known that the more money you have the better lawyer you can afford. This often results in richer people being able to get great representation and poorer people not being able to afford such great representation. That often results in judges and juries not getting the full stories and people getting unfair sentences because they were unable to have their cases fairly tried in court. I believe one of the fundamental principles of this country is making sure everyone has a fair trial and I want to help uphold that to the best of my abilities. I truly believe that I can be the change that I want to see and if I can even help one little girl realize that she can chase her dreams, I will know that all of the hard schooling and long nights up studying has been worth it. I want to use the privilege of an education that I have to make sure that everyone, no matter their socioeconomic status, has access to exceptional representation and someone to look up to and with the help of this scholarship, I will be able to achieve that goal. Thank you for the opportunity to apply for this scholarship and for your time and consideration.

One personal finance lesson that I find important is to plan for the future. I was fortunate enough to have a parent that is very financially literate so he told me how important having a retirement fund from a young age was and because of him, I am now 20 with a pretty good Roth IRA. I started putting in money when I started working at 16 and now I am more prepared than a lot of my peers for when the age of retirement does come. It's easy to have tunnel vision when you're young and put off setting money aside for when you're at the age of retirement but the sooner you start the better and I am really seeing that to be true that the consistent effort I started doing at age 16 is paying off and my retirement account will only get bigger.