Asia R.

Service Year Experience

About

Why Asia Wants To Serve

I am applying to city year in hopes of having the opportunity to work with school age children and have a positive impact on their life. Growing up in the inner city I never felt that I had a role model to look up to. I spent a lot of my time misbehaving and disrupting class in a desperate effort to gain the attention of anyone be it good or bad. My mom worked full time and raised my four siblings and I alone. I watched my mom struggle to feed, cloth, and sustain a roof over our heads. The stress that weighed down on my mom made for very unpredictable and hostile days. Some days she was happy but most days she was angry and created a very abusive environment. I consistently struggled through school beginning in the third grade and continuing all the way through my first year of community college. I had no idea what I was doing and constantly fell into the mindset that school “isn’t for me”. I was still mad at the world for all the bad days I endured at home. Eventually, I met my mentor in 2012 and everything changed for me. The genuine care and effort she put into making sure that I was okay and succeeding in school inspired me to put my best foot forward. With her help I was able to refocus, graduate from Community College, and transfer to the University of California, Irvine. In all, I want to have the opportunity to positively impact underprivileged and underserved community so that children can find their passion for education like I did.

Languages Spoken

English