Pillar of a Generation

Pillar of a Generation

It was a humid afternoon and we had just been assigned partners for our very first English project. Our task was simple, interview a classmate to get to know them and write about it in a profile, but to me it seemed like a daunting task to capture a person in a few pages. The name she called out with my own was Stephanie Corales, a name that I was delighted to hear. I had met her previously through the honors college, so I knew a bit about her already, but I was still excited by the opportunity to get to know the girl with the warm smile and vibrant eye shadow. She put me at ease while we talked and she allowed me to get to know her deepest inspirations and motivations which lead her to speak about one of the aspects of her life that she was most passionate about- her education. Stephanie’s studies are what she prides herself on and she recognizes her own duty to strive to her greatest potential academically for herself and her family as a first generation student, as seen in the following moment of the profile.

She knows that she has a responsibility to not only her parents who were born in Mexico, but to her younger and older siblings who have yet to attend a university as well. She motivates her siblings to strive to do their best because she knows how powerful a bit of guidance can be in a person’s life and exemplifies this through her family. She especially motivates her sister who attends Rio Hondo college, who coincidentally is her biggest role model in life. Stephanie views her sister as a mother figure who helped raised her to be the person she is when her parents were out of reach

Something I’ve realized about Stephanie is that she is relentless when it comes to her education. She chooses to use every possible aspect of her life as fuel to add to the fire of burning passion for her future. There are many options that this girl could’ve taken in various situations in her life, but she never chose to see the bad and instead focused on what she can do to be better. When I talk to her it feels as if I’m talking to a person with laser pointer vision aimed exactly at what she wants in life, which is something I deeply respect as I do not have that privilege. I admire Stephanie for her persistence and constant desire to aid others in whatever way she can and I understand her personal experiences that lead to becoming the person that she is today.