My name is Jennifer Hinojosa, and I am a dedicated and determined individual seeking to achieve my educational goals. I am applying for this scholarship to help me overcome financial barriers and continue my journey of lifelong learning. My path to higher education has been far from typical. Graduating from high school was a significant milestone for me, as I became the first in my family to do so. However, I faced numerous personal challenges that prevented me from finishing my college degree. Growing up as a child of immigrant parents who faced the threat of deportation, I had to prioritize supporting my family financially. Despite my efforts to return to school, the need to supply income and the lack of focus due to various personal challenges kept me from completing my degree. Several years ago, I found myself in an abusive relationship, which led to a pivotal moment in my life. Upon becoming pregnant, I knew I had to leave that environment to ensure my son would grow up in a peaceful, loving, and safe home. This is when I decided that a higher education would be the best outcome for us to move forward in life. Starting from scratch, I took on various part-time jobs to support us while setting my sights on obtaining a degree in engineering. This field not only promises job stability in the aerospace sector but also provides me with the means to support my son, who is autistic and requires ongoing activities. Carol B. Warren’s story resonates deeply with me. Like Carol, I faced significant obstacles early in life that diverted my educational path. Her decision to obtain her GED in her 50s and her unwavering support for her family serve as a powerful reminder that it is never too late to pursue one's dreams. I am inspired by her legacy and strive to embody her spirit of perseverance and dedication in my own life. My commitment to lifelong learning and overcoming adversity mirrors Carol’s journey, and I am motivated to achieve my goals despite the challenges I have faced. Recently, I had the incredible opportunity to intern with Lockheed Martin as a Systems Integration and Testing Engineer Intern for the Orion capsule in Artemis I and II. This experience confirmed my love for aerospace but also fueled my passion, which has been growing since childhood when I would immerse myself in anything aviation and space-related. Despite not yet having obtained my degree, my six-year-old son's autism has led to various niches, which is Outer Space. This shared interest has deepened my commitment to pursuing a career in aerospace. This career path not only aligns with my interests and strengths but also promises a stable and fulfilling future for my son and me. Achieving this degree will enable me to provide a better quality of life for my son, ensuring he has access to the resources and support he needs to thrive. Receiving this scholarship would reduce the financial stress that currently hampers my academic progress. It would allow me to reduce the hours at work, allowing me to devote more time to school. By receiving this scholarship, I hope to honor her legacy through my dedication to education and my commitment to resilience. Carol’s perseverance and devotion to her family resonate with my own experiences and aspirations. This scholarship would allow me to move closer to my dream of becoming an engineer. It would also ensure that I can provide an enriching environment for my son, where his interests can flourish and his needs are met.

Resilience is the ability to withstand and recover quickly from difficult situations. STEM is exactly that, a field full of resilience professionals figuring out how to solve such problem. This pandemic has taught us various, innovative ways to continue to learn, work, and create all while following the guidelines given from health officials. COVID-19 showed the world, the importance of STEM during this world wide crisis, in which we are still learning about. STEM professionals used their resources to provide materials needed for the protection of health workers, they came together from all backgrounds of STEM to build respirators, and allowed educators to continue to teach the future through technology while emphasizing the huge role STEM has played in giving us the opportunity of having a vaccine in less than a year. STEM is the foundation of how the world operates, and the pandemic has shown exactly how important it is to continue to encourage the next generation to be involved in STEM. The world will forever be different, however nothing in this past year of the pandemic would of been possible to do without the STEM professionals, who gave the world, technology, medicine, innovations, and creativity to move forward in this new normal we are now faced with. With the future comes hope, and that hope is all thanks to STEM.

My journey with self-love has allowed me to see, what I am capable of, has shown me, that I am not what others believe of me. Growing up I struggled plenty, I was very insecure, and with extremely low-self esteem, that my mother did not understand, as I was always complimented by my appearance, and just pretty much flaunted at events by my parents, just so they can say how beautiful I was. I hide under clothes, when I started being able to wear what I wanted, I picked the most guyish clothes and just hide, so no one would talk about my body or anything involving me, because was taught beauty meant great housewife, and I was made for more than that. I struggled to stand out in the only way I thought was the most important in life and was through my intelligence, I started believing people saying that I was too pretty to be smart, I was too good looking to be on my own, that I was easy on the eyes, and some guy will marry me. However not once did marriage cross my mind, I did not want to be tied up to anyone, I wanted to just be me, and once I failed my first class in engineering, I went into a big depression, and thought everyone was right, I'm just meant to be a great trophy wife and that is it. I got involved in my first relationship, and it went downhill from there, suffering from depression, and having parents that will believe in a god but refuse to accept that their daughter is dealing with depression, I ended up in a domestic violence relationship, and suffered for six years in silent. I had no one to turn to, and then I got pregnant. While having a child was not in my plans, and I definitely did not want to raise a child as a single mom, my child gave me the courage to finally walk away from that relationship, to walk about from everything toxic in my life, and so I enrolled in college, and knew I had to give my dreams a second chance because I deserve it and my son deserves a better life. While I do struggle from time to time with self-love, I now know what I am deserving of, I know that I can fail, and that is okay, I know that I can be pretty and intelligent, I know that I am strong and persistent, and I know I have days when I just need to cuddle up next to my toddler and just enjoy the moment. Is okay to not be okay, and is okay to be a girly girl in a male-dominated field such as aerospace. Learning how to be okay with my appearance, and knowing that I am intelligent as well, has helped me raise awareness of the subject of beauty with brains because being feminine in any field should be normalized.