I am from the south suburbs of Chicago,IL. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the experience of living anywhere else. Evidently, me coming here to Agnes Scott is my very first time living in another place. Of course, I’ve visited many states such as: Maryland, Virginia, and Indiana and, just recently, Mexico, Honduras, and the Cayman Islands. Never-the-less, Chicago is my home and I absolutely love it.
I’ve been involved in a few sports throughout my childhood beginning with basketball to volleyball to cheerleading. I started cheerleading at the age of 6 and ended my freshman year of high school. Even then I had already been a cheerleading coach for 3 years and continued to coach cheerleading and gymnastics up until last month. I feel this sport should receive the most credit in forming who I am because it ultimately cultivated the phenomenal leader I am today. I don’t mean to sound boastful but; it taught me how to take responsibility over a group, how to develop maturity even as a young person, how to present yourself when given potentially life changing opportunities, and how to practice what I will perform.
Additionally, my religion plays a large role in solidifying my values; giving me the tools to draw from when conducting myself when no one is looking. I am Catholic. Catholicism was passed down to me from my great grandmother who is from Manila in the Philippines. She fell in love with my great grandfather who was in the Philippines fighting in a war that I cannot remember the name of. Together, they landed themselves on 97th and Indiana in Chicago.
In my StrengthsQuest, my leadership strengths were: Individualization, Harmony, Empathy, Maximizer and Arranger. Of these, I hope that people are able to see the trait called “Individualization”. As defined by CliftonStrenths, a person who has this trait doesn’t “want to obscure what is special and distinct about each person”. They observe “how each thinks, and how each builds relationships”, and most importantly, they “can draw out the best in each person”. These specific pieces not only gives a sufficient definition, but embodies me the most, and embodies who I have decided to become as a leader moving forward.
I plan to become a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and the quality of Individualization is essential to learning about my future patients, their strengths, and how to best move about treating them. In order to do such, I must be willing to accept how differently people think, what they bring to the table as a person in society, and how to draw out their best traits in order for them to effectively function in society. My ultimate goal is to be the individual in peoples’ lives that has the largest impact on them when making a transition.
So, as of now, my contributions are centered around networking, building new relationships to build leverage in my community, and simply listening to the people that I meet to expand my knowledge for me to knock down the small steps I need to take to accomplish my ultimate goal.
