Shanttel Porras
America Needs You Fellowship
4/15/2019
Dear Fellowship Committee
When I entered high school without much prior preparation and lack of guidance, I was immediately overwhelmed by the change and new expectations. It started out easy enough, but ultimately with lack of mentorship in a big school I started falling through the cracks. Further affecting my unpromising performance then, was when my mom congenital heart defect ultimately called for an emergency heart operation and left our family shaken. As an elder sibling I faced sudden responsibility during an emotional time. Taking all these responsibilities with my younger siblings and coordinating the household and much more chores had awakened an appreciation of all my Mom still does for us. While feeling underestimated and held back academically during this time faced with remedial classes which I took responsibly with newfound maturity, I managed to take extra time in my third year to take an advancing credit in Trigonometry (sacrificing summer voluntarily, like in the SEEK summer program). This let me to get an advanced regents diploma, which was not expected of me, but did so anyway. This was in line with my future goals as I needed to advance my math level if I was to become a science major to move forward in college level beyond. Even through my 4 year high school experience was strife with pitfalls and small blessings, I learned that even though I thought the worst had happened to me, feeling inadequate, and even other school advisers gave discouraging advice with my noncompetitive performance, my lifelong desire to study science kept my average up with a 92% science subject average that helped much to get to City College through SEEK. In addition to that during my senior year I took initiative in taking as much College Now classes as possible, I took four back to back, and earn the maximum credit allowed. As a bonus yet, I took three SAT II in one day, because of a fee waiver few used, too strengthen my chances. I took the Spanish, Biology M, and Language and Literature SAT II and while I didn’t score perfect due to lack of proper prep, I scored well enough. I had to prep myself for my test on my own, with free study materials, because I couldn’t afford the high cram pricing for paid test prep.
For my major, I plan to concentrate on the life sciences, leaning toward genetics as my favorite subject was always Biology. I was always most engaged in my high school science lab activities and even offered help to peers that were facing the threat of remedials. I was always eager to help my friends understand the lesson when they struggled in science classes as I always believed to help others improve is to also help yourself improve too. I was best out of all subjects in science not because I’m a genius or more talented than others but because I was driven by active interest in these subjects which I know will through my next three years in college and beyond. I’m not afraid to explore other professional routes and paths too, because I know there are many applications and types to jobs to offer in just one field alone. The opportunity field for genetics; as cancer research, disorder therapy, or conservation, as for all Biology expands every day. I also want to broaden my field by developing technology skill sets through web advertising as an analyst of traffic data, as it’s applicable to Bioinformatics.
My biggest struggle of a school subject to master, especially as of now in City College is definitely math, because I felt I was not prepared right for college level math or had teachers that worked to get students engaged in learning the subjects. We had mostly learned for a test then let it go, and that doesn’t add up in college. I am willing to overcome this obstacle as science major especially to be able to learn and major in Biology and its quantitative side.
As when I applied to the SEEK program which resources provide a basis, I feel I would be a good candidate for the America Needs You fellowship as it will fundamentally support me be the first in my family to graduate a four-year college, help to pursue a profession, and ultimately provide socioeconomic mobility for me and my family as a first generation American. These types of opportunities given through ANY fellowship would allow me to lift up my family and inspire my community, not only serving myself, which shows how these programs help social mobility, especially for immigrant families like mine. I could eventually help my siblings, including my autistic brother reach out to different out-state programs without having to worry about paying for my expenses too. Then finally, so that my father the sole source of stable income doesn’t have to work so many overnight shifts damaging his health for the sake of us. This fellowship for me can provide the chance to pursue a dream career or maybe even two, a Major in Biology; Behavioral Genetics and experiencing internships as a Web Advertising analyst or Medical Bioinformatics, is of course another opportunity that will propel me forward. I thank you for reading my story and hope I will be considered for a chance to be enriched by the ANY fellowship.
