Being a first-generation student and the first in the family to go to college, I have always wanted better for my family and me. I learned at an early age just how much my parents sacrificed to get me where I am today. My mother is from the Philippines and had to stop school in middle school when she was young to find work and money for her family. In addition, both her parents died during this time, making it even harder for her. Even now, she has only managed to get a minimum-wage job. On the other side, my father is also from the Philippines and moved to the United States during middle school. He had an abusive father and couldn't stay out of trouble as a kid, leading to only accomplishing a high school diploma. Similarly, my dad's father died early in his life, a month before he got his diploma. He luckily got a decent job through connections in the end. Nonetheless, my parents pay or education has nothing to do with how valuable they are. Despite their tragic backstories, they somehow managed to move to a safe area with good schools for my brother and me. They house us, feed us, and love us unconditionally. That is why my goal is to get a good job and give back to my parents and thank them for their sacrifice. I am currently a junior at UC Riverside, majoring in computer science. As classes get harder and harder, one of the biggest reasons I push through it is my parents. I love technology and computer science, but when I inevitably burn out, the thought of my parents quickly motivates me to do what I need to do. Without them, some of my independent projects would not be finished. I would not have taken the extra time on a homework problem, etc. By remembering my family and past, I am able to dig deep and push through demotivating obstacles. For example, a common obstacle many people face but may never overcome is failing. Especially for me, where my parents invest a lot of resources into me, there is a lot of pressure to succeed. I find this mindset more harmful than good. I have failed a couple of times in my school, my career, and my life. For example, I have gotten rejected by about a hundred companies where I was trying to get an internship. While I fall into a slump and give up, I take this as an opportunity to learn. "I need to practice more leet code." "It's better to fail now than in a real high position job." "My parents will continue to support me even if I fail." Ultimately, my past with my parents discipline me to stay consistent and motivate me when I was down.

My encryption and decryption project was when I first realized how impactful my major and career could be. I coded it in Python using a map to contain every character on the keyboard and its encrypted counterpart. It then appends each character it reads into an encrypted/decrypted string using a key. What looks simple at first could be easily advanced. I also made it so that it displays a menu. I also made it checks user input and sends an error message and the menu again if the user enters an invalid input. In addition, I also made it read, create, and write files. This was also all done using Replit and Github so as to document my thought process and code for myself and for the public. As you can see, even a simple idea can be advanced to be more convenient, more efficient code, etc. Ultimately, it shows how dynamic computer science is, I saw in real-time how useful programs could be, and it intrigued me to find out more about cyber security, etc. The field is a never-ending learning cycle, and I'm excited about the challenge. It is worth mentioning that I did not originally know Python, meaning my college did not use Python in their Computer science classes. I self-taught myself it using my native coding language, C++, as a reference when learning the syntax, functions, etc., in Python. What I'm trying to say is that computer science has a lot of transferrable skills, making it rewarding to learn just one language, data structure, etc., as you make it easier to learn them all. With traits like these, the nature of technology and computer science inspires and motivates me every day. It doesn't even have to relate to me. Seeing interesting ways people solve real problems using code from articles, youtube videos, etc., leaves me in awe and leaves me wanting more. Being a junior in college, I've noticed my classes getting harder and harder. While it has been hard to balance grades and personal projects, I find the challenge enjoyable and practical for the future. It enforces the correct foundations I need to be a software engineer. I also love how collaborative computer science is. I am in the process of doing a project with a study group of mine, and it is incredibly efficient. My partners can see errors I cannot, and vice versa. Ultimately, computer science brings a certain challenge, has a high reward to learn, and encourages collaboration to be the best version of you to do the best work you can for society.

My name is Martin Angelo DeGuzman. I live in Dublin, California, and I am currently a Sophomore at Las Positas College with a major in Computer Science. I plan to transfer to a four-year UC in the Fall of 2023. I have fallen in love with computer science ever since I took an introductory class in high school. I started by making basic websites and games but quickly learned how dynamic and practical the field was in college. I am excited about anything when it comes to coding, and I plan to do several projects in the future with what I have learned so far. Being a first generation as well as the first to work on a degree in my family is a big but exciting challenge. My family means a lot to me and is a big part of my 'why' in terms of my motivation. Ultimately, I plan to retire them with the help of my education and career. Besides working on my school and career goals, my hobbies include working out, hanging out with friends, and playing chess. I first picked up chess in high school when I saw somebody playing it in the library. I asked what it was and immediately jumped into a game to learn about it. At first, it was frustrating because I didn't know what each piece did, but eventually, I won the game. They weren't a great player, but it was significant enough to make the experience memorable. Eventually, I wanted to learn about chess from other places, not just at my school. I searched online resources and went to local meet-ups to see and try strategies. It was very hard, to say the least, but also very satisfying to the point where I wanted more. A couple of years pass, and I believe I am a decent chess player. Not good, but not bad. I have had some exciting moments where I outplayed my opponents, and I still think about it today. I am glad I got to experience chess while I was younger. As a college student, my schedule is more and more packed, and I have less time to devote to my hobbies, including chess. Nonetheless, I believe the skills I learned in chess have transferred to other areas of my life. For example, in chess, you need to manage all your pieces and take into account the whole board before making a decision. This global awareness has taught me to manage my time better as a student. I have never submitted an assignment late or with poor quality. In addition, chess has taught me about resource management. As a result, I use every resource I have to assist me in completing my work. Whether it is getting tutoring help, going to my professor during office hours, or the unlimited resources online, it has definitely made me an excellent student. I love chess and play it once in a while, encouraging others to play as much as I did along the way. Ultimately, I think everyone should experience chess for the love of the game and intellectual benefits.

Addiction is nothing new to my family. My dad was addicted to cigarettes until just recently, now switching to vapes. I, unfortunately, followed suit with his cigarette addiction. I was first introduced to cigarettes in high school with some of my friends. We loved watching old movies, and they commonly advertised cigarettes, unfortunately. One day, my friends and I wanted to try it at least once. We knew the consequences of smoking, but it never really clicked in our heads. Back then, we were just curious teenagers trying to have some fun. At first, I coughed for about 5 minutes straight and threw up immediately after that. It was embarrassing. I thought I was going to look like those actors in those movies. Not a care in the world, the quintessential 'badass.' Unfortunately, that was not the case, and I found myself wanting more the very next day. After that, it was all downhill from there. I made up excuses to my parents just to smoke or obtain cigarettes. I grew up in a strict Asian household, so I was very paranoid about myself, but I continued to do it. I brushed my teeth immediately after coming back from smoking so as to erase the evidence. The addiction caused a downward spiral in my life. I ended up spending less time studying just to smoke, and my grades reflected that. My 'friends' from earlier ended up splitting up after the coronavirus, and I was all alone with an addiction. One day my dad found. I was going out too much to smoke, even though it was a pandemic and we were all supposed to stay inside. He exploded, to put it lightly. He was disappointed with me. I was angry and blamed everyone but myself. In my mind, it didn't make sense for my dad to scold me since he smokes/vapes too. It was hypocrisy. I ended up thinking about that moment couple of days. Was he right? What am I gonna do with my life? What if he cares about me and doesn't want me to end up like him? All these questions, no answers, but a lot of time later, I ended up deciding to stop this addiction and get my life together. I definitely had urges, I even relapsed once, but my solution was to substitute cigarettes with hard candy. Not only did I stop smoking, but I ended up taking school seriously. I found my passion, which is computer science. I started being more social, slowly but surely. I started working out, fixing my diet, fixing my sleep schedule, etc. I'm proud of what I have achieved in two years, but the journey is not over yet. Money is still a problem in my low-mid-income family, but I started a part-time job to help with that. Ultimately, I am glad and thankful for this experience, as it made me who I am today.

Losing my grandmother has been the hardest tragedy to overcome in my life. She meant so much to me and I often think about her. She had a heart attack while playing some board games with her friends. I remember the day I was brought the news. I genuinely thought I was in a dream, it felt so surreal. All the memories of her rushed my mind. Her laughing in a winter holiday get together, when she babysat my brother and I for a couple weekends, how she genuinely cared for my success, etc. It was hard to come to reality that all of that would be gone from that point on. I had no choice but to move forward. Then I made a huge realization. I was in high school at the time and quickly remembered that I have a job to do. I remembered my career goals, academic goals, and the people supporting my journey. I refused to let the death of a love one affect my life for more than a week. While it was a horrible thing, I remembered life isn't fair, and how people react to hard times are what differentiates who succeeds and who doesn't. I chose to adapt and fight through the struggle. It's what my grandma would have wished for.

Being Filipino-American has great influenced my purpose in life; from career and educational goals to place in society and my values. Growing up, I have learned many lessons from my filipino parents. Many of the lectures emphasized the importance of family, respect, and education. While the path definitely had its obstacles, I learned to take these beliefs by heart and practice these each and every day. I am grateful that my parents taught me and I have been conscious of the actions I choose to take and the consequences. I try to be the brightest in the room and make meaningful friendships, but also recognize that I cannot fulfill everyone's needs and that not everyone will like me. Such lesson would not be learned without the help of my culture as a filipino. Another way being filipino has influenced my purpose in life is in my academic and career goals. Being a first generation college student, there has been a lot of pressure to succeed given my parents sacrifice and leap of faith to immigrate. It has been hard, but remembering where I came from and my values direct me on the right path and allow me to stay consistent with my education. Whether it is people not believing in my, imposter syndrome, or accumulating stress, I remind myself of my heritage and push through. Ultimately, being a Filipino-American has given me the motivation and purpose to be myself and surprise myself with my achievements.

I first got exposure to the computer science field in high school and immediately fell in love. I also had the opportunity to take the AP exam for computer science that same year which I passed with a 4. I found the whole idea of computer science very enjoyable, and I could genuinely see myself doing it for the rest of my life. I loved the logic, amount of languages, how there isn't only one right answer to solve a given problem. It is like a painter choosing what utensil, color, canvas to create their new piece. I loved the process and still do to this day. I am only a sophomore in college right now so I don't have a 'dream job' per say. I have a couple jobs are peak my interest. I am very much interested in cyber security, machine learning, and making large scale applications. I have many projects in my GitHub that go into detail, and my YouTube recommended is full of these topics. Another reason I love computer science as a major is because of how many different areas it branches into, and with the world focusing more an technology in the future, it would be a good investment to get to know the tools at our disposal. Coming from a poorer family, I believe I would make the most of the scholarship. Both of my parents come from the Philippines. They had to make the sacrifice and leap of faith in order for me to succeed. Being immigrants, they also had to settle for the lesser paying jobs since they could not speak English very well. As a result, I had to mature at a younger age than most, and realized I needed to find my passion as soon as possible. During high school, I took many 'experimental' classes to find what I was passionate about. Some of the classes included band, engineering, chemistry, computer science, etc. I am fortunate to have the tools to learn about my passions with easy access, but it also proves that my passion for computer science is real. Ultimately, my background and gritty mindset make me the best candidate for such scholarship.

Computer science allows me to express my creative side. Creativity is something I have learned to harness as a computer science major. I was creative in high school, but not until senior year did I find a medium to express my creativity, my first computer science class. I was no longer constrained to thinking creativeness had to be art drawings or animation. One reason I could express my creative side in computer science is because of how much depth there is to it. For example, there are numerous ways to essentially write the same code and tons of different languages, each with their own use cases. Once you think of a problem or an idea to implement, you have options on how you want to tackle it, like an artist choosing a color or utensil to use. One of my most proud projects was one of my python projects. I taught myself Python because C++, the language taught at Las Positas College, is mainly backend programming for bigger applications and software. On the other hand, Python can be used to create many projects outside of just the IDE. I am also very interested in cybersecurity, so I wanted to do a project that was practical and had a lot of developed features. I ended up making an encryption and decryption project. It takes a file specified by the user with a message, asks the user for a key, encrypts or decrypts it using that key, and writes that encrypted/decrypted message to a file. One of my most proud features includes it being on a continuous menu, the encryption/decryption algorithm, checking that the user entered a valid input for all inputs, version control using GitHub and Replit, etc. Looking back, the project started as a very simple one. It only encrypted a message and printed it out, but with all the tools Python has to offer, I quickly scaled it to the project it is today. While my version of being creative might not be conventional, it sure is fun, and I can imagine and implement an idea just like any other creationist, which is all that matters to me.

Mental, Physical, and nutritional health are a huge priority in my list. This is because I was raised with the theme of "health is wealth." I took that statement taught by my parents to heart at a young age. I played basketball throughout elementary and middle school, ran track and field in high school, and workout at the gym at least twice a week every since I started college. To me, physical activity helps maintain my physical health via the physical activity as well as mental health as it has been proven that physical activity is a huge stress reliever. In terms of nutritional health, I try to make my own meals when I can with low calorie and high protein substitutes. While it has been time consuming, practicing these good habits are a big reason I have been able to put out quality work in my school up to this point. The stress relief is very nice in a stressful and busy college life. In addition, I don't feel the after effects of fast food by making it myself; instead, I feel energized each and every day. I'm love my body, so it is obvious that I would treat it with respect.

Being selfless is a very important yet underrated characteristic, especially in our generation. Personally, I have had my 'down' episodes in my life, and I find that random acts of kindness and selflessness are the biggest positive mood swingers. Words hold a lot of weight, which is even more so true when combined with the action itself. I personally come from a naturally selfless family. Being selfish was frowned upon, and being selfless was encouraged and taught via demonstration. But when I entered the real world, I learned not everyone was taught this. Many choose and pick for themselves because they think they deserve it because the world is unfair to them, but being selfless when you can is satisfying and memorable once you see how it makes their day. It can be the smallest act, such as asking someone if they want some food before you eat. Ultimately, being selfless builds character creates lasting positive memories.