Thank you FEA for making my dream come true!

My whole last week in Cambridge, England, has been very busy and mainly consisted of catching up on my homework. One of the learnings that will stay with me forever from studying abroad is the value of discipline and time management skills. While studying abroad in a country I had never been to before, and that is across the world from where I live, it motivated me to wake up early everyday to make the most out of my stay in the United Kingdom because otherwise there would not be enough time in the day to explore. Especially with all the responsibilities I held as a student from The University of Texas at Austin, my course has been very content-heavy on top of making time to continue volunteering at the Gretton School. Volunteering became one of my favorite aspects of studying abroad because it humbled me and showed me that we can always serve and be helpful to others; all it takes is a willing heart. Volunteering while abroad also made me realize how, since I started college, the time I have spent volunteering has decreased since I have had to work, attend courses, do homework, student teach, and study for my teaching certification exams. However, my time abroad has taught me that there is always time to volunteer with the right time management skills and prioritization. Therefore, when I return to the United States, I plan to apply to be a 2021-2022 volunteer for the Duncanville Independent School District to give back to my community. In addition, through my course, I have continued to learn about the socioeconomic status of marginalized students and the role the racial wealth gap plays in those statistics. In college in the United States and the United Kingdom, African students have to take out more loans for their education than their Caucasian peers. As a result, despite marginalized students earning a higher education degree because of their student loans and the interest rate accumulated, they do not see a significant movement in their wealth or a change to their financial situation upon graduation. Student debt is the primary challenge young people face when they seek out loans to become business owners and homeowners. With these high debt-income ratios, marginalized racial groups will continue to be disproportionately unable to become homeowners or start businesses. Through these learnings, it made me better understand the high current pressure that is being placed on President Biden to forgive student debt. At the same time, it makes me extremely grateful and further appreciate non-profit organizations like the Fund for Education Abroad, whose mission is to provide scholarships and ongoing support to underrepresented students among the United States study abroad population. These scholarships help alleviate student debt and help bridge the racial wealth gap. I am incredibly grateful to the Fund for Education Abroad organization for making it possible for me to study abroad in Cambridge, England, for twenty-eight days. It has been a dream come true throughout my whole stay. Furthermore, due to all of my lived experiences, I am even more inspired to one day obtain my M.Ed in Higher Education and return to my community by one day establishing the scholarship Alcanza tu Sueno (Reach your Dream) to help fund the higher education of first-generation, low-income, talented students of color.