Cristopher Macias

If there's anything my family and humbling background has taught me, it is that the most important things in life revolve around your authenticity, passions, experiences, and community. It’s these things in life that make up your identity, the things in life that people can’t take away from you. Growing up, my parents instilled in me the value of education, growth, and hard work. These guiding principles have molded me into the man I am today and will continue to set the foundation for the man who I wish to become. My parents never had the opportunity to finish school, yet they did everything to ensure that my brothers and I had the chance to pursue higher levels of education. This idea of understanding others became more important when my parents gave me and my brothers the opportunity to continue our studies at a much more academically excelling institution about 30 minutes from where I reside. Studying at a predominantly white and affluent institution as a first generation student was obstinate; however, knowing the sacrifices my parents made for me as well as the principles they instilled in me was enough for me to keep pursuing my dream as an academic pioneer in my family. I grew up in a very diverse setting, so for me it was never about seeing eye to eye, but rather from another's eye. In order to feel a sense of belonging, I began to nurture this idea of social cognition and used it to build meaningful relationships with my peers that extended beyond surface level conversations. The lessons I have learned through experiences are all the legs on the latter that have supported my elevation to success in academia. Through and through, it is the tenacity that I bear, the ambition that fuels me, and the authenticity which I embrace that allow me to supersede the challenges that I have faced. Before I enter the real world, I find it imperative that I take advantage of each and every opportunity that I get to not only further gain knowledge, but also expand my perception through experiencing what I have yet to experience.
As an aspiring business student, I made it a mission to prepare myself for upper-division business curriculum; If given the opportunity to continue pursuing my academic studies, I plan on taking advantage of the platform granted to be involved in campus environment, network with as many people as possible, and challenge myself to think more rigorously about academic concepts and the world of business that I aspire to be apart of.
Within the next few months, I will be leaving El Camino and my biggest satisfaction comes from being able to say that I gave it everything I had. I did so by surrounding myself with people who could foster my personality as not only a scholar, but also as a human being who has aspirations that go beyond classroom walls. This sense of belonging allowed me to reach for the stars while also remaining rooted and it wouldn’t have been attainable without my associations: Puente Project, Puente Club, Inter Council Club, Student Leadership Institute, Great Men Club, and Student Equity Advisory Council.