Being a junior in high school isn’t as easy as it sounds. This is the year we’re expected to study hard and come out on top if we want to get accepted into a good college; however, it’s also the year where we juniors are faced with rigorous tests such as the SAT and ACT, and also the Advanced Placement tests. Fortunately, I qualify for the free and reduced lunch program, so I have my test fees waived off, but fee waivers won’t always be my financial cushion. As I progress through high school, I will need more funds to be able to take more tests … [Read more...]

My name is Raphael, and I come from a family of five – a younger and an older sister – who support me in my studies and extracurricular activities.  I currently have a 4.07 UC weighted GPA and am involved in Track & Field and Cross Country. I do not focus on the negatives of my situation because I am blessed with what I have to work with. My dream would be to attend Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in hopes of pursuing a major in Architecture. I am a first-generation American who has been conditioned to believe that succeeding is predetermined by … [Read more...]

Me, myself and I, they all like to learn new things that will help me in life; something I will never forget when I am older. I like to be optimistic. All that begun couple of years ago, when my cousin was born with autism, a mental condition when it makes it difficult to communicate or form a relationship with other people around you. As my cousin was growing up, you could easily see that he is special, not like other kids around him. I made up my mind of being a therapist for children who were born with a special, unique development like … [Read more...]

What motivates me among all other things is my desire to achieve happiness through my success. My passion for sports has driven me to be a tri-athlete these past three years in high school, helping me bond and work together with others. My mother and father were born and raised in San Pedro Sula, one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Despite being in love with my father, my mother met an English man and married him in order to gain citizenship for my siblings and me: essentially sacrificing her happiness for mine. After a major … [Read more...]

Hello, my name is Tony. I was raised in a family of four, including two sons, me being the oldest at 16. I am a current junior and am taking four AP classes. My goal is to get into medical school and become a general physician. I was inspired by the medical field after my mom had a surgery on her appendix during my freshmen year in high school. I was completely shocked by the news of my mother's surgery. My mother has always been there for me and she has always encouraged me to grow up and be the person she has always dreamed of being; a … [Read more...]

  The majority of teenagers despise their parents nagging, but I was deprived of incessant parental reminders, such as: “Andy go clean your room!”  ​When I was twelve years old, my parents went through a harsh divorce. My dad relocated to Vietnam and my mom decided to move to Wyoming. Back then I longed to have parents who would be available to teach me how to drive or lecture me before my first date, but all that I received were a few checks to compensate for them not being in my life. Both started new lives with their new families, … [Read more...]

I immigrated into the United States from Mexico when I was 10 months old, and have lived in the same small apartment in San Diego ever since. We moved into a seemingly nice neighborhood, but I would soon find out that it was a dangerous place to live in. Drugs, violence, and organized crime would be seen at all corners, and the many gangs polluted the areas with brutal violence against themselves, other gangs, and innocent people. Things seemed innocent enough, at least when I was small. My father abandoned my family when I was 5 years old, … [Read more...]

I come from two migrant parents who both did not attend college. The siblings I grew up with, because they took care of me the most, all had no interest in academics and a higher education. Because I had no encouragement for being academically successful, my whole elementary experience was a blur where I did not have any aspirations to be successful in school. My family all were academically poor, so I saw any goal related to being academically successful as an impossible dream. My neighborhood was a quiet one, although I felt as if I lived in … [Read more...]

Dear Trudy and Eric, I would like to start off by saying thank you for sponsoring me through the A Bridge for Kids foundation and granting me with this scholarship that was a blessing all year long. It makes me happy to know that there are kindhearted people like you willing to help me (and my family) have an easier year. When I received this sponsorship I asked for my very own lacrosse stick. The stick that I had been using previously was not mine; therefore I could not practice outside of school with it regularly. But with it, I could … [Read more...]

My name is Angel, I come from an American-Mexican family and I live in a one-bedroom apartment with my sister, aunt and 5 other people. My neighborhood is the place your mother tells you not to go, and my neighbors are the people she says you should not see. My own mother never warned me of these things because she became a drug addict when I was in kindergarten and ran off with a man. She came back a year later to kidnap my older sister and I. She hid us in the most dilapidated building I’d ever seen, in Tijuana, Mexico, with a different … [Read more...]