Accounting by Jessica

Accounting by Jessica - June 2020 Scholarship Essay

Accounting is an essential part in the world of business helping keep financial records organized and managed in a plethora of ways. I am planning on majoring in accounting at Penn State under the Smeal School of Business. After being accepted into the Schreyer Honors Program I knew I could go in depth within my courses as well get a chance to research accounting through the required honors thesis (I am planning research diversity in accounting and its impact on businesses especially small or minority owned would). I would also like to further my Spanish by studying business Spanish providing practical applications for the Spanish world of business and learning terms beneficial to my translation. After finishing my master’s degree at Penn State, I will become trained reaching the levels of a certified public accountant.
I was younger, I never knew what I wanted to further my education with. I found myself joining clubs and community groups to find my interest and get involved. I ended up joining the LISTO program (a set of learning sessions held at my Latino Community Center about team building, decision making, conflict resolution, life skills, career pathways, and leadership concepts). During the program I got paired with a Mexican American mentor, who worked in business. Before the experience I could never picture myself as someone who would become an accountant, but after learning about the profession I found that I was thoroughly interested in the career.  
As a Mexican American woman, I can understand the importance of representation in all fields of careers. In America diversity is continuously growing day by day. This is represented as new and upcoming business owned by minorities and women continue to grow. The same cannot be said regarding the accounting field. Minorities and women have been under represented in the accounting field. Having a diverse group of people can offer so much help to the growing small businesses, especially new businesses that are owned by minorities and women. With representation, people can find support that works for them and helps their business financially. Being able to grow the representation within the accounting career is essential for so many people. I know this from personal experience. Growing up, I was constantly helping translate for my parents who were not confident in their English language. Having translation was helpful in many situations, including financial documents. My parents have consistently relied on the support of a Spanish-speaking workers to help them file their taxes.
Making a change in the environment of the accountant field is a big dream of mine. When working in the accounting firm I will partake in making the community a better place for current and future accountants. This includes in initiatives like difficult conversations about diversity, encouraging training that eliminates bias and make the workspace comfortable for everyone. While working as an accountant. I hope to use the skills I have learned throughout high school to help me mentor the following generation of accountants. I took part in the Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse in America. The intensive summer program held at Princeton working to support the higher education of students who are under-represented in top universities or from under resourced backgrounds. While participating they focused on many standardized test prep, leadership training (through courses including an aspects of leadership where we discussed issues as first generation and low-income students). This was a life changing experience. This entire experience has really inspired me to work, to become a leader beyond just college and to continue making a change into my career. I hope I can help mentor the future generation of accountants. I would not have made it where I was today had it not been for the mentors I had supporting me throughout the entirety of my high school experience. I also would have never become familiar with the field of accounting. Learning and becoming associated with the field was what inspired me, and I hope I can help become that spark in the future as well as support and teach students working to becoming accountants. With that also comes support. Not as much support comes to accounting students in terms of scholarship as other fields, so I would like to financially help students like me who working hard to become accountants.
I always knew I wanted to work hard in school. Growing up with parents from a small ranch, they didn’t have the same opportunities awarded to them. My father had to work as soon as he was old enough to support his family. He never even started schooled. My mother could never finish school ending at what would be considered 8th grade in America. I also knew I would work hard because of my brother. Having a younger brother who was diagnosed with Autism and Apraxia (making him nonverbal) I knew he would need my support in the future. I also do it for myself. As someone who struggled with school as a child and was born with a genetic disorder (Turner Syndrome meaning I was born with a single X chromosome) I never saw myself as anything special and gave up on myself. Through education and my voice I have found in leadership I have been able to become the best version of myself possible.