Stories of Lives Changed

What is success and how do we be-come successful? I think this is a question underlying most of our lives. We all want to be successful in our lives, but what is success? Our notion of success is founded on our values. For me, success is achieved when we live up to our potential and when we give back more than we receive. Our ability to be our potential selves is always triggered by the people who have been influential in our lives. I am no exception to this rule. The Vista Hermosa Scholarship Program is an entity that has had a major positive influence on my life and has made it possible for me to be where I am today.

In 2002, I was in my fifth year of High School, attending an alternative High School, all due to the problems that I had created for myself. While I don’t have space here to go into all of these self-created problems and circumstantial is-sues, we’ll just say I was a pretty lost case. I went to Jubilee Christian Fellowship, attending their school and living in their residential program, because of the possibility of obtaining the scholarship upon graduation. It was there I commit-ted my life to Jesus Christ and I have never been the same.

Upon graduation I spent two years at a leadership training and discipleship school, graduated with my Master’s in Social Work in just five years (the same amount of time it took me to obtain a high school diploma), and have had the opportunity to serve in a variety of manners and locations. I have spent my time wanting to give my life for others. I’ve done this through volunteering (at non-profits and governmental organizations) and working with at-risk youth populations (goal planning, counseling at the individual, group, and family levels, and whatever else I could do to be of service).

When I graduated from Jubilee I knew that I wanted to pledge my life to service. The first step to this was obtaining my MSW. Due to the economic / racial makeup of the U.S., it seemed learning Spanish would be one of the most advantageous activities. I spent the last year in South America (mostly Cusco, Peru) learning Spanish, teaching English, and volunteering. Now I’m coming back to the U.S. I plan on continuing my education by getting a certification for Spanish and finding a job working with people who need support just like I did so many years ago.