I am a recent non-traditional transfer student into the history department at the University of California-Los Angeles. I began my collegiate career at the age of 22 after working in the restaurant industry for 5 years. I began taking history classes while attending Long Beach City College and noticed the lack of representation in the professors who taught the courses. I also noticed the underrepresentation of people of color in the various textbooks in regards to modern Europe. Being a Latino male who comes from a low income background I began to question my involvement in school due to family and work obligations. It wasn’t until a professor told me to become involved with the Associated Student Body on campus that I noticed how much I can impact my community by just addressing what was missing. This was the moment that I decided that academia would be my career path and I needed to sacrifice both time and income to make sure I accomplished my goals.
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I continued this practice of speaking up for the underrepresented people when I began my junior year at UCLA. I took a course in the History of England in the Age of Shakespeare and noticed that there was little to no representation to the African-Moor population that lived in London at the time. This issue, the underrepresentation of African-Moors in early-modern England, is what drove me to apply to the Mellon-Mays Undergraduate Research Fellowship. My research focuses on The Construction and Performance of Race in 16th Century London. It is because of these experiences that I have been motivated and empowered to apply to the Leadership Alliance. I want to enter your program because I feel that this will not impact my immediate future but also my long term goal of earning my Ph.D. and becoming the professor of color that I wanted to see at my community
I continued this practice of speaking up for the underrepresented people when I began my junior year at UCLA. I took a course in the History of England in the Age of Shakespeare and noticed that there was little to no representation to the African-Moor population that lived in London at the time. This issue, the underrepresentation of African-Moors in early-modern England, is what drove me to apply to the Mellon-Mays Undergraduate Research Fellowship. My research focuses on The Construction and Performance of Race in 16th Century London. It is because of these experiences that I have been motivated and empowered to apply to the Leadership Alliance. I want to enter your program because I feel that this will not impact my immediate future but also my long term goal of earning my Ph.D. and becoming the professor of color that I wanted to see at my community