Jesse Hernandez

My name is Jesse Hernandez, I come from a low income neighborhood which my family has been living in for 20+ years. Both my parents are from Mexico and were brought to the US as kids. They went to the same elementary, middle school, and highschool that I attended where they learned english. I am the result of a teen pregnancy, my mom had me in her Junior year of highschool. My mom and dad both had plans of going to college after highschool but couldn't because of me. My mom graduated from Pitman high but my dad had to drop out in order to take care of me and help my grandma with bills. Ever since they came to the US they've been living in Turlock or in a surrounding city just as I have. I want to be the first person in my family to go to college both for myself, and to make my family proud. Since I was about 4 years old my mom has been raising me by herself as a single mom. Until recently, I didn't know what I was going to do after high school, until I started taking Psychology my senior year of high school. My biggest motivators in deciding why I wanted to go to college to study psychology are my psychology teacher, my counselor, and my girlfriend. I want to not only use what I learn in college to help me get a career as a high school counselor, but I also want to use it in my everyday life to strengthen my relationships with the people in my life.