Describe how your Hispanic heritage/ family upbringings, and/or any role models have influenced your academic and personal long-term goals.
             Culture is often defined as the integrated pattern of human behavior that includes thought, speech, action, and artifacts and depends upon the human capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations. However its implication is more than just a statement is rooted in my soul since it contributes to my Cuban heritage. I was born in Cuba, where I spend most of my childhood being taught many encouraging and positive morals such as the proverb "Any fool can say "Ah" -- you need intelligence to say, "Yes." My mother started to be my role model at an early age; she wasn't a hero in society yet she sacrificed a lot for her family and for me. She demanded respect and excellence in my studies, she earned her degree while she was pregnant with me and had to walk miles to get to her University at that period in time since buses were hard to find. Her pregnancy didn't stop her for completing her degree as technician in computers. Even though she had her career established in Cuba she decided to depart to America, leaving her dreams behind for the simple reason of a better life.
             Growing up, I wasn't close to my biological father since my parents were divorced when I was very small to comprehend. My mother raised me alone with my stepfather. Despite the fact that I was a little girl living in America, things at home were very harsh at times. My mother and stepfather had strict rules of leaving the house since they were unfamiliar with the environment. When we first came to America, my family was poor, which determine the fact that ends barely met to buy uniforms and school supply. We didn't know English; we didn't have much hope, my family went through many obstacles. My mother slaved, day in and day out, as a telemarketer, worked in factories
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