Bio.

I was raised in a household that had little financial stability.  We have used food stamps since I was very young and have moved often because of financial problems.  My parents were addicted to drugs, we were homeless at times and had to depend on the welfare system for most of our needs.  When I was in the sixth grade, I was reading at a second grade level because of all the moving we had done.  I was put in an ESL class and the teacher and students in the class thought I was stupid and made it clear to me that is what they thought.  By the eighth grade, we had moved two more times and were living in subsidized low income housing in one of the richest suburbs of Portland.  I was excited to get away from the bullies that had called me stupid, but soon discovered it was not cool to be chubby dressed in clothes from Wal-Mart, while the other kids dressed in designer clothes.  I found myself the target of all the bullies jokes, comments and pranks.  By the end of the school year, I didn't want to eat, go to school or even get out of bed.  I just wanted to sleep because at least the bullies in my dreams weren't real.  By my sophomore year, I moved and stopped caring what they had to say or do and eventually they went away. This allowed me to break out of my shell and actualy enjoy going to school. Fast forward two more years and I'm finally a senior in high school! By this time I was a or had been a member of almost every club on campus and in my community. Graduating from Marshall High School in 2011 with over 500 hours of community service/volunteer work!

After a year of caring for my family while my mother battled lung cancer and taking a year long internship, I'm please to say I will be attending Portland Community College in the fall.