College: Harvard University Hometown: San Diego, CA

Hi, my name is Jesse Sanchez. Growing up in an environment that lacked motivational guidance made it difficult for me to succeed academically. My mother was never around to remind me of the importance of simply doing my homework because she hardly received a break from her endless workday. A single mother, she sustained our family on a meager annual income of less than $7,000, yet I was not going to hold our economic status or her absence as an excuse for failure. Although I searched for any opportunities available to me, at the same time I noticed how my friends in the neighborhood were not. Despite encouraging them to excel in school, I did not understand the reasoning for their growing attitudes of passiveness and low self-esteem as they quickly became enveloped in a lifestyle that was punctuated by organized violence and narcotics.

Seeing how these influences had the power to tear families apart, I strived for a better way of life, put academics first, and made it to college! Finding guidance was difficult but luckily, I was able to find Reality Changers, a program that takes inner-city students and makes them first generation college students.

I hope to be the role model that many of the students in my community lack. I want to prove that academic success is possible, no matter what obstacles one may face. If I am able to continue to lead others toward striving for a college education, then success, rather than the continuation of negative social stigma, would become more prominent for students in my community.