hello! My name is Karla Acevedo. I learned about your scholarship opportunity through my MESA class at Mariner High School with Mrs. De La Cruz! I am currently in my senior year, ready to get into my esthetician class and psychology later on. I have applied for another scholarship and I have no clue if I’ve gotten accepted but I am here to apply because I just need help to be able to pay for my beauty school (Evergreen Beauty School) and or my 2 years of psychology class (Everett Community College). I would like to tell you more about why I chose what I chose. First, I love makeup and skincare so I thought about being a cosmetologist but then I started to notice estheticians which I love more about doing microdermabrasion, chemical peels, facial and body waxing, eyelash extensions, etc. Secondly, I’d like to be a psychologist for children most likely to understand them more of why they think a certain way and react a certain way as well just to give them the help they need overall and give them the support they need. Let them be able to express their feelings without feeling ashamed by their parents or guardians. As a child, I was a very timid person and I am currently taking a psychology class in my senior year and I see why I do certain things and what the cause is and honestly, I’ve never been open to my parents. Always kept my emotions and thoughts to myself because if I said how I felt or talked about my thoughts they say that I was crazy or that I didn’t even know what I was talking about and then they talked about how they lived a harder life than me and I understand them that they didn’t have the education and money back then. Currently, the barrier we are facing is money. My dad is the only person in my family who currently works to try to feed 4 people and provide a roof over our heads but he doesn’t work every day due to no help. And he has switched and switched jobs and just doesn’t seem to find a place where they can offer him a stable job. I understand they want me to be successful but they expect the most from their first child and push me to be the best version I can be but yet it can be so overwhelming. I was also never really good in school. That is also one of the barriers I'm trying to get through and never enjoyed math or reading but I see that it is a skill that I will need throughout life no matter what. I just want to keep my education going and make my parents proud. Furthermore, another Barrier I have includes language. The language barrier is something I still struggle with. I learned Spanish as a young child with my Hispanic parents who also just speak Spanish and once I started going to school and learning English it has always been difficult as of right now there are certain words that I don’t understand and don’t ask for elaboration. Also, another difficulty would be not asking for help when it is needed. I always translated for my parents at a young age and when not knowing what something meant they would be pretty rough on me and say “Why do you go to school if not going to learn” Even now they are still pretty rough but English is hard and especially if you are speaking two languages. I’d say I am not very fluent in Spanish and English. All of the barriers that affect me in different ways opened my eyes to how and why certain things are important and never give up no matter how rough life is.