Hello, my name is Francine Batungbacal and I am an undocumented immigrant; but I am more than just my citizenship status. I am an artist and a creative mind, though I had almost given up at one point. I felt my soul crush when my parents told me that I was undocumented. Many doors that were once open to me had shut, any job security turned to dust, and my future in this country had been suddenly deemed uncertain. I was devastated. I had two choices back then. I could give up and move back to my home country of the Philippines, or I could pick up my pen and keep going. I chose the latter. I have committed to Laguna College of Art and Design for their BFA program despite all odds; because not only do I love art and want to pursue it above all else, I always look to shatter boundaries to make a path that wasn't there before. When there are roadblocks, I don't just look for a solution, I look to outgrow them. Additionally, I don't just problem-solve for myself. I take great pride in helping other artists who are in difficult situations gain a voice for themselves. I created a networking forum for more than four hundred and fifty young artists to provide resources and bridge a gap for those who may not be able to afford art school, those who may not live in LA (where opportunities are prominent), and those who are underrepresented in the art industry like people of color, women, and LGBTQ+. This forum resulted in members gaining an entertainment arts internship, getting accepted into their dream art colleges, creating bridges for the future, and drastically improving their art. I believe that I deserve this scholarship because I am willing to further my education despite the risks of my documentation status. In the world of art, I am not an undocumented student. I am an artist with a craving to create and imagine, and I am always taking my moves one step further. I did not give up on myself back then. Instead, I churned that devastating blow into a fiery passion to achieve my artistic goals. I have been diligent in my studies and kept a 3.7-4.1 GPA throughout my high school career. I have pushed myself to improve myself as an artist and attended not just Ryman Arts, but a storyboarding class with Andy Cung, an ArtCenter animation class, and an internship at the BRIC Foundation to grow my artistic skills as well as my presentation and problem-solving skills. I have built a foundation for myself, and I am willing to build it higher and stronger while working diligently at Laguna College of Art and Design. This scholarship would finance my education and allow me to focus on creating rather than counting. It will supplement the doors closed to me due to my immigration status, and I can lift the burden off of my parent's backs to pay back their support for my career; this is especially because they may very well be working past retirement age. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have such a wonderful creative field to look forward to in the future. Thank you for your time and consideration, Lian Francine Batungbacal

There’s always that dreaded situation in every art student’s mind: their parents will never accept their passion to pursue a career in the arts. It’s a job that sets you up for failure, there’s no money involved, finding employment is hard, art will burn down your house, pull a John Wick on your dog… every single horror a parent can imagine. However, it was the opposite for me. It was I who feared my own hobby. “Mom, dad, I want to be an English professor at some university… it’ll be good pay.” “Mom, dad, I want to be a dentist since it’s good money.” Year after year, I had been scrounging up the best-paying jobs to dream of and hope to accomplish for the sake of putting my parents in a better position for retirement–however, my true love, art, had been sitting in the back and collecting dust. That was until I stepped into my first figure drawing class that I applied to on a whim. When I stepped through those doors, my tide suddenly pooled into an ocean. There was something fantastical about it. The people there all loved art and had worked on their craft for ten, twenty, thirty, even forty years. They wielded jobs at Disney or Netflix, and passionately discussed the nuances of art and creation. This experience was a catalyst in my spiral down the art rabbit hole, and suddenly I wanted to create. There were worlds that I had stuffed down the drain, characters that had been locked away in closets, creatures shoved behind textbooks of math and science to never see the light of day again–but I wanted to bring them all out, my own Renaissance was at my fingertips. That was when I realized that I did not want to be a professor, a dentist, or a nurse. “Mom, dad… I want to be an artist.” I was prepared for their response. Art sets you up for failure, there’s no money involved, finding jobs is hard, and there’s no stable future in art. “I wish you had told me sooner. I would have enrolled you in many art classes,” my mother said. My parents were completely supportive of me in pursuing my dreams. This shook me to my core and brought tears to my eyes. My mother brought up some advice she had been repeating to me since I was a little kid. “Whatever you want to do, you will be the best at it. Even if you’re a janitor, or a waitress, or a McDonald’s worker, be the best.” From then on, art has had such a profound impact on my life. I worked hard, and eventually gained an art internship to pitch my ideas and experience the art industry firsthand, I applied to three art classes to help me along my path, and I wanted to expand this horizon further for others and myself, so I created a Discord server that houses 360+ young artists who connect, create, and share with each other on the daily. I’m very lucky to have such loving and supportive parents who will walk with me through my path, but we have many roadblocks, such as money. The only way they will allow me to go to some of my most wanted art schools is if I scrounge up enough money for a full ride–but if it means that I will get to do what I truly love as a job and give back to my parents in the future, then so be it. For art and for my parents, it is all worth it.