I'm an Immigrant and I'm a Human

As a product of immigration, I was shaped by the unique benefits and challenges of spending my developmental years in multiple cultures. I was born in the rural province of Nueva Ecija, Philippines but spent most of my early childhood years in the country’s capital city of Manila. When I was six years old, my family moved to Singapore for several years before settling down in Guam by my ninth birthday, when my father contracted a job with an international hotel franchise. Learning to navigate the cultural discrepancies in my life soon became a norm, one that shaped my values and priorities. Through trial and error, I developed skills to adapt and succeed across cultural boundaries as I encountered new people ceaselessly through my travels.

While I capitalized on the benefits of and loved my nomadic life, I could not ignore the inevitable costs that accompanied my experiences. Some of the challenges included an acute lack of stabilization and the feeling that “home” was always elsewhere, which hindered a sense of belonging to any one location. For example, I hesitated to claim ownership of any of the countries I grew up in due to ethnic and cultural barriers, yet I also felt perceived as a foreigner every time I returned to my legal homeland in the Philippines. Throughout the years, my fluency in English masked my international upbringing and nomadic history, which produced a “hidden immigrant” mentality. Moreover, as a result of my family’s constant relocating, the transition to a new culture and cost of living proved to be very challenging. I knew from a young age that my parents would not be able to afford many things, let alone a college education for my siblings and me. The endlessly changing horizons in my life incurred bo...

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...ationships in out-of-school activities to promote positive youth development, respectively, are directly linked to my own areas of interest. Given the opportunity to work with the faculty whose work is so closely aligned to my own research ambitions, I will be able to create and refine truly meaningful and significant work.

With a doctoral degree from CU-Boulder, I intend to pursue a career of lifetime learning as a professor or a researcher. The excitement of making meaningful discoveries, gaining insight from existing knowledge, and conveying its significance to others propels me to continue my path in academia. I am convinced this is the path meant for me, and I am confident your school is the best place for me to work towards my goals. I sincerely hope to be given the opportunity to prove my commitment, drive, and determination as a student of your University