Culinary Graduation CIA

My eighth grade teacher told me that the best go to The CIA. It was never my dream because I believed it was too unrealistic for me. Five years after that I was accepted into that exact school. Three years after that, this is me: graduating with honors, three competition medals both state and national, a leadership award, a humanities award, and a bachelor’s degree in Food Business with an associate’s degree in Culinary Arts.

If you ask my family and friends, there wasn’t one day that went by that I expressed how much I wanted to quit. I fought with myself every semester. I needed to learn that I was doing this for me and remember to make that eighth grade girl proud.

Thank you God for this opportunity, the doors You opened, and what is to come. I am thankful for my mother that worked so insanely hard to put me through college. For my sisters and my father constantly motivating me and inspiring me through their own lives. Thank you @franchesca.luc for the essay help, we all know I needed it. Thank you to my friends, my professors, my coaches, and the people that have shaped me along the way. Lastly, thank you Tia Yaque, for believing in me and supporting me through it all. You are never forgotten.

I hope I can make you all proud. I couldn’t have possibly done it without you.