Kingsburg is a small town that sits right in the center of California, in the heart of the Central Valley. It’s full of farmers and small businesses that are passed on from generation to generation. A large majority of the population is migrate workers, whom work the fields with whatever produce is in season. My family comes from a long line of these types of migrate farm workers. My parents would scratch together whatever jobs they could find growing up to help support their families. As my sisters and I grew up, we learned early that hard work doesn’t always cut it in life. My parents helped us understand a strong education, paired with hard work, can take us anywhere.
Growing up in Kingsburg, my family background showed that we had two options after high school. Option 1; graduate high school, find a job, work there for a large majority of our lives and retire. Option 2; attempt to go to junior college, drop out, find a job, work there for a large majority of our lives and retire. As a teenager, I remember seeing my aunts, uncles, cousins, and my own parents go through these same options. If I were to describe my family background in one word, it would be repetitiveness. It wasn’t easy to break the cycle of my family background. I credit my parents to keeping me motivated and positive that a better future will come from hard work and education. This solid foundation helped my older sister achieve her Master’s degree, my younger sister to achieve her Master’s degree, and given me the opportunity to pursue my MBA degree.
What I plan to achieve with my two bachelors degrees and MBA is to educate and enrich the futures of student athletes. I hope to one day become an athletic director at a prominent university where I can help impact the lives of student athletes. There are many roads to travel when pursuing a career as an athletic director. My short term goals include understanding how a company works internally. My position as an accountant for Caesars Entertainment, has allowed me to understand first-hand how accounting, finance, funding, and investing occurs in a large corporation. I am content with my current position and only hope as I gain more experience it will reflect on how I operate an athletic department in my future.
Walgreens has a strong position in the community, which provides us plenty of opportunities to impact the local community. My favorite events thus far have been the charity walking events. These events allow us to set up water stations and interact with all participates. Additional charity events I am involved with include food drives, elderly care, and university outreach programs.
I don’t know where my future will take me. I don’t know where my career path will turn. I don’t know what doors will open for me next. However, where I come from my future was supposed to only have two options. I find great comfort knowing that these options will never come true in my life.