Episode 9: Don't Let Rejections Stop You - Homelessness, 1.0 GPA, Low Income, Etc- Maritza Lopez

what is up everybody my name is Juan Perez and welcome to the first few our podcast was created for one reason to be a platform for people of color to share their journeys through their stories these individuals have had to overcome obstacles and are striving to be successful our goal is simple to inspire and motivate people of color everywhere to accomplish anything they want we want to share stories that you can relate to while also learning through their experiences and perspectives thank you for supporting our podcast and people of color everywhere Maritza Lopez is a proud first generation woman of color who shares her story of adversity on today's episode of the first few like many students she was able to successfully share her story of adversity on today's episode of the first few like many students she was able to successfully transfer from a community college to a four-year college but not without a number of challenges from starting with a 1.0 GPA in community college and experiencing homelessness to graduating with a double major in art history and african american studies from UCLA Maritza's story is truly an inspiring example of not letting rejection stop you what's up everyone i'm here with Maritza Lopez who i actually was able to meet through linkedin and i'm very excited for her to be here today how are you today Maritza good good thanks for having me here yeah of course um i've actually been able to read some of your story through articles so i just want to jump right in because i think that you have like this long incredible journey that people have to hear and will take a lot of inspiration from so can you start us off with that yeah for sure um so first of all i'd like to thank Juan for you know creating this podcast for sure linkedin is a really great space and i'm really excited to get to know him and to find out more about his life from his experience and what he's been through so i'm excited and i'm so excited about getting to know him and hearing his story because i was so inspired by the stories he's written and how he's gotten to kind of take stories and share them for people to interact with and get to know other people i was surprised by checking out this podcast he's creating so i really want to you know elevate his work and appreciate the thing he's doing to other members who want to pursue higher education so what's up everyone my name is Maritza Lopez or you can call me Ritz it's easier way to say my name i am currently a student at UCLA senior year but before i tap into there i wanted to share with journey and where it led me to be. In high school, as any other kid whose first gen is confused and doesn't really know what's going on, I was seeing all my friends applying to colleges. I had a good

00:02:43 - GPA. I was an honor roll, and I was like, oh, let me just go with the flow. Everyone's applying, so I should apply too. I got involved with a couple after-school programs such as Kid City

00:02:54 - Hope Place downtown, YMCA Ketchum, Teen Lead Center that helps students apply, also get a cheap membership. I was just hanging out with my friends, cruising around. At the end, I got accepted to one UC and one Cal State. It was far away from home. I wasn't really sure if I wanted to go or not.

00:03:19 - There was a lot of things happening at home, a lot of things happening with my personal life that I didn't want to do. I didn't want to go to school, so I decided to go to community college route. I live literally across the street from Los Angeles City College, but I decided to commute an hour and a half to go to Santa Monica College. I thought it was worth it, and it definitely was.

00:03:40 - I had fun. It was a whole different community for me, different experience, but my first year at

00:03:46 - Santa Monica College, I had a 1.0 GPA. Mentally, I wasn't there. I had a lot of experience, but I was able to pursue higher education. On my second year at community college, my family and I were homeless, so we all kind of scattered, and we live in different places. I was very fortunate enough to have a home. I lived in a shelter not so far from Santa Monica, and even still living through the shelter, I decided to pursue higher education. I was able to pursue higher education, and I didn't really know when this cycle of working continuously, paycheck to paycheck, was going to end, and I noticed a lot of my mentors who I met through KidCity or the YMCA, they had so much to talk about school, so I was like, if they are able to sustain themselves financially through pursuing higher education, that's something I want for myself, and yeah, through my journey there, living in the shelter, I still...

00:04:54 - I've not sat up on people's wouldn't like. I submitted my college abs to transfer to four year university. I applied to nine schools. I got accepted to seven out of their nine, and I was happy.

00:05:07 - But for sure, UCLA was one I had in my mind for awhile. I got in as an art history major, and I love it.

00:05:18 - And the reason why I decided to do art history was mainly because...

...we hear a lot of our stories. I can't say me specifically, but when I say I just needed it.

00:05:22 - I can't think of as many of us with art, and it's not just one city.

00:05:23 - But we broke and I feel like it was breathe air.

00:05:23 - I was loving the life.

00:05:24 - I loved growing up.

00:05:24 - I love building at your home.

00:05:24 - It was amazing.

00:05:24 - I was happy.

00:05:24 - I love building at your home.

00:05:24 - Yeah.

полю encourage district.

coming from an indigenous group. My mom's from Zapotec up in Oaxaca. So it's kind of questioning who tells our stories, who writes our stories. I'll read more into these scholarly articles about the Latinx community or Mexican Americans. And I'll see a different name who's writing these scholarly articles. And that's the beauty of it, of people are intrigued and interested, of people who look like us, want to learn from us. So it would only be best if people who look like us write about us. And that's how I decided to do art history. And now still at UCLA,

00:06:10 - I decided to take an extra year. So this will be my fifth year in college, double major.

00:06:17 - So I'm really excited to be able to share my story and African American studies and art history.

00:06:20 - There's a lot to unpack when you say your story in such short time. The first question I have is, what were some of the feelings you were experiencing as you went alongside this journey?

00:06:37 - So I create three little boxes in my head. It's like everything at home stays at home, everything at work stays at work, and everything at school stays at school.

00:06:47 - It becomes very difficult. A lot of it's self-care and mental health. You have to really focus on what you're doing at the moment.

00:06:55 - If you smush the boxes through together or they all get wet, it's hard for you to pick it back up and organize it together.

00:07:03 - And at one moment in my time, I couldn't. I wanted to make fast money. I was trying to figure out ways, either working without my social, under the table kind of job. At one point I did, but the more I got involved on campus, I started seeking all these opportunities, all these scholarship, like all these grants, all this money. And I was like, all this helps me cut back from working hours.

00:07:36 - And I loved it. And I never thought of that because, yeah, like my family and I, we had to attend court.

00:07:46 - And I loved it. And I never thought of that because, yeah, like my family and I, we had to attend court.

00:07:46 - And I never thought of that because, yeah, like my family and I, we had to attend court.

00:07:47 - For being evicted or attend court because one of my brother is currently incarcerated.

00:07:53 - And then attend court for all these, like, it's so much attending court that I was kind of just like so drained.

00:08:00 - I was just like, all right, you know, at school I have to try to just smile, make the best out of it.

00:08:06 - When I'm home, I get my life together. When I'm work, just focus on the people like customer service vibe.

00:08:14 - There's no real answer to it.

00:08:16 - But I definitely just want to emphasize, you know, taking care, taking care of yourself and like putting a step back or learning how to organize yourself mentally in different spaces.

00:08:29 - So taking a step back before we move on forward, can you talk to us a little bit more about your childhood, maybe, and where your parents came from?

00:08:37 - So others that kind of resonate with that can can speak to that.

00:08:42 - Yeah, for sure. My mom comes from. So I'm.

00:08:46 - Mexican and Salvi was born here in the States.

00:08:50 - My mom is from San Pedro Cajonos, which is up in Oaxaca, close by, like these mountains we call Montalban.

00:09:00 - It's an indigenous group of individuals up in San Pedro Cajonos that speak Zapotec, Zapoteco.

00:09:08 - My father is from El Salvador or the city in San Salvador, and he.

00:09:16 - They both came down here for different reasons.

00:09:18 - One for sure was finance.

00:09:21 - My father came down here because of the civil civil war that was happening in Salvador.

00:09:26 - So they both came here at a very young age.

00:09:29 - They met here in the States.

00:09:32 - And now it's five of us who are here.

00:09:37 - How was it growing up more so?

00:09:38 - You said you were from L.A.?

00:09:41 - How was it growing up in L.A.?

00:09:43 - I want to hear a little bit more about where that story came from.

00:09:46 - And kind of like how your mindset was nurtured, because I know that it wasn't just like automatically there.

00:09:52 - It was kind of something that you learned.

00:09:55 - Yeah, that's you know, that's a very interesting question, just because I'm just like we hear that born and raised in L.A. all the time.

00:10:01 - And I was like, yeah, I'm born and raised in L.A.

00:10:04 - And there's some people come in saying like, oh, that's so cool to say.

00:10:08 - And I was like, you know, you can say that with anywhere born and raised in Oakland, born and raised in like, I don't know, Texas or like New York.

00:10:16 - But L.A. vibes, I don't know, I think it depends on the community you come from.

00:10:23 - There's people who come from East L.A. or like Boyle Heights, East Hollywood, West Hollywood, Silver Lake Echo Park.

00:10:31 - Where I hung out the most or where I grew up was around like Silver Lake Echo Park, East Hollywood area.

00:10:38 - So for sure, I can say born and raised in L.A., but it's a completely different spectrum from anyone else who mentions a different community.

00:10:46 - So, yeah, my community, when I was growing up, it was different here and there.

00:10:53 - There are very few like gang affiliated groups that come to my middle school and there's going to be fights on campus.

00:11:01 - But it was such a normal thing, like where I was just like, all right, like, you know, we're all jumping over the fence, this and that.

00:11:07 - It's like, all right, no one's hurting themselves.

00:11:10 - But I know it was a different experience for my little sister there.

00:11:14 - It became like a well.

00:11:16 - My middle school, my siblings, we went to the same middle school.

00:11:19 - Now it's like a magnet school and we're just like, oh, dang, like it's so wide.

00:11:26 - But I mean, I'm glad that my sister's accessing all these like resources.

00:11:33 - But that kind of, you know, it makes you question a lot.

00:11:36 - Like when I was there, who was a community president and how is it that we didn't have these resources?

00:11:42 - So it's a good thinker, good way to pause and think about it.

00:11:45 - Hearing a little bit more.

00:11:46 - I want to know more about that.

00:11:47 - It sounds like you obviously had like a childhood where you had to, like, watch out for things or you just had to, like, be aware of your community around you to stay safe.

00:11:57 - And do you think that affected you in terms of the journey you explained to us earlier?

00:12:03 - Like, how did it maybe like strengthen you or how much or what did it do to help you kind of persevere?

00:12:09 - Because what you went through was something that's hard and a lot of people go through, but not a lot of people could finish.

00:12:15 - But yeah, we can definitely, well, I can definitely say, I think it empowered me, it made me a little stronger.

00:12:27 - And, you know, I don't, I didn't realize that as I was a kid until I became an adult that I didn't know I grew up poor or I didn't know I grew up poor is just a heavy word, too.

00:12:41 - It's hard to even analyze it as an adult.

00:12:43 - I would like to say financially.

00:12:44 - Yeah.

00:12:45 - Like, financially unstable.

00:12:46 - I didn't really understand what that was until, like, now that I'm making my own money, paying my rent.

00:12:56 - I'm just like, dang.

00:12:58 - So my family and I were like in midlife crisis where we're barely making our rent, paying our food, getting clothes or a ways to, like, you know, public transportation, just getting one place or another.

00:13:14 - So, you know, I think it was a very challenging time in terms of, you know, making future decisions.

00:13:25 - It was a really challenging time.

00:13:27 - So I think you know you hear this word a lot.

00:13:31 - Like hustle.

00:13:32 - You know, we hella hustled.

00:13:33 - We learned how to hustle.

00:13:34 - We learned how to, you know, take advantage of resources that were there for us so we can use.

00:13:35 - We were able to whatever we were given, you know, make the most out of it.

00:13:36 - But I think a lot, a huge, a huge advantage I really want to emphasize is because my siblings and I were born here in the South.

00:13:37 - We didn't know where they were coming from.

00:13:38 - We were born here in the South.

00:13:39 - So we were born here.

00:13:40 - We made the most out of it.

00:13:41 - We grew up in the South.

00:13:42 - We gave of it, gave it to the world.

00:13:43 - We made the most.

00:13:44 - States. And I really want to, you know, check my privilege, too. Because if I wasn't born here in the States, there were certain services, my parents and I were able to access because of that.

00:13:58 - And I can't say that for everyone. Because it's not easy. It's not easy on everyone. So it's definitely a case by case kind of thing. So that's what it helped me overcome.

00:14:08 - Yeah. When you were going through that journey, and persevering through it, what was like your motivation or your inspiration that you were going towards?

00:14:21 - Did you have one? And if so, can you explain a little bit more about what that was?

00:14:26 - So my motivation or like my perseverance, my biggest motivation, or I think more so like my biggest happiness was just being in class. I was able to laugh with people, I was able to just do homework, learn something, I was able to sit down with someone and just talk about academics, which I didn't, like, really think it was a normal thing to do. Being able to like have friends at school. I like that, like, when teachers really take their time, teachers or professors who take their time to create a whole curriculum, and they get so excited, they're like,

00:14:59 - I have an agenda today. And I was like, Whoa, like, look at this person, like so excited just to teach us like, dang, I like this. How can, how can I be excited? And I was like, well, I'm excited just to sit down and learn. Let's do that instead. So I found that very motivational and astonishing to see a teacher just light up and be like, I'm so excited to teach you about like colonization, the history that happened to us back in the 19th century. I was like, all right, like, you know, wrap it up, teach us up. So that was my motivation.

00:15:30 - That's cool. I think that that's super, super organic and feasible for anyone to do. It just takes like somewhat of a skewed mind.

00:15:38 - To do that. And I know you mentioned a little bit more about like grants, scholarships. Can you talk a little bit more about how that aided you and being in the place where you are today?

00:15:48 - Yeah, so when I attended Santa Monica College, they had this really cool website, where you submit one application, and your information gets sent to all these other scholarships they have allocated to what is it endowments on campus. So it was like the their circle. There's a whole see Association of scholarships, Santa Monica College had one application was able, like whatever you kind of like checkmark off or whatever you're eligible, you're able to get those scholarships granted to you. Right. And that was how I got like some pretty big scholarships, the scholarships that were able to pay for my books and everything, I was able to tap into programs on campus. So I joined EEOP.

00:16:38 - Yes, which is called the Education Opportunity Program, or success program. And that program, basically, if you're first gen, you're a low income student, or you know, you can't meet the financial needs. If your family makes an what is it their family contribution is like 000 on financial aid, you'll most likely get, you know, financial support, which is paying for your books, school supplies, anything like that.

00:17:07 - Right. Another program I joined was the Adelante and Black Colleges program, which is like, I kind of just want to translate as like the Black Student Union or the Latino Student Union we had, but it was a program assembled to like, spread social awareness advocacy within black and brown communities and really emphasize on the educational support black and brown students need on campus, through them, I was able to get access to to financial support.

00:17:36 - What advice would you give to a student who's looking for those types of opportunities? And maybe in my perspective, I've seen students just back off because they think that they can't get it? What like, what would you tell them?

00:17:50 - So really, one thing I enjoy telling people the most, don't let someone tell you no. So if you can't get the opportunity, you can't get the scholarship, you know, there's other ways you can definitely like access resources.

00:18:07 - Like, so resource and social networking, those are some like two big things I started learning throughout like my academic journey.

00:18:19 - You know, don't think of resources only as money. Resources could also be a way of networking with people and they can find you a job opportunity, networking at just meeting a group of students who can help you out with like, you know, book exchange or like using a calculator when a TI-84 costs so much money.

00:18:36 - It's etc, and we're just talking all about that, right?

00:18:37 - It's just accessing resources, so please, folks do not get discouraged, if you get involved in the program and you can't get that scholarship or grant act like, you know, given to you.

00:18:50 - It also is like a need base.

00:18:53 - So what if there was someone out there who needed more than you, or there's someone out there who just, you know, wrote a whole letter, because there's XYZ happened in their personal life, you know?

and I'm not sure if you, it's an literally Facebook or Instagram, conversation, but you're one of those who are kind of scared, you know?

you want to correct that?

00:19:04 - Like, you can communicate, you wanna talk today.

00:19:05 - I use something online, and I will go to your local text, let's go visit there and have a Slack group, whatever that would work for you.

you know please don't let one little thing discourage you from not being involved with the group of you know people who are just trying to help out and that's that's for sure i want to tell people like don't get discouraged like if someone tells you no just be persistent look somewhere else look in the same group too or look around and find something that tells you yes right i like what you explained um resources on networking because i think that once you find networking you find more resources more resources equals more networking so it's kind of like a circle that that's just like a really cool topic that i know i'm going to take from my own life and then before we move on to what you did during ucla that you wanted to talk about can you talk a little bit more about like being away from your family when you were in santa monica and like what you know what thoughts were you were going through and maybe like people that helped you through that time um so yeah so my second year

00:20:01 - Monaco College. I live in the shelter called Bruin Shelter. It's a group of undergrad students that run, undergrad and grad students that run the shelter voluntarily, but it's also ran by a nonprofit called Students for Students.

00:20:15 - And I get that question asked a lot when people ask me like how did I feel living without my family. And one thing I'd always like repeat and I always tell people is that I felt like I abandoned them and left them over my education.

00:20:32 - But it's something that I really really wanted and I had conversations with my family members, both of my parents and my siblings, and it was hard. Definitely it was hard. And my mom was scared and you know coming from a Latino household you can never leave like the girl on her own or like the female or woman to live on her own. It's such a huge thing.

00:20:56 - When like the girl is the first one to step out of the family. So I decided to do that and I was kind of like you know let's break these gender norms. Who kind of defines these lines. But I definitely want to be mindful and respectful from where they're coming from because it's a different you know lifestyle from where they grew up from where I'm growing up. So I really want to respect their their opinions too. And you know I definitely got homesick even though we didn't have a home. It was just that feeling being able to reconnect with them and hang out with them. But I was super grateful from the people I was able to hang out with because we definitely shared similar stories.

00:21:38 - Thank you. Thank you for sharing. I think that obviously that's a question that comes along with people's mind but I think it it showcases a little bit more about the personality that you have and the motivation and kind of passion you have to keep on moving forward. And I hope people take that from like that little piece of this episode is that like if you really want something like you can do what you need to do whatever it needs to take to accomplish that. And moving on to UCLA can you talk a little bit more about the program that you're involved in? Yeah so my first year at UCLA people hyped up unicamp which is something I forgot to mention. But unicamp is somewhere where you get to fundraise money through the whole academic year to take a child to go camping with you for a whole week. And that's something that I've been doing for a long time. It's something so fun to always do. Like I got to fundraise you do like a minimum fundraiser but I was super happy that like you know I was able to kill time and just be like you know let me fundraise more. With those monies being allocated you could take more kids to go camping with you. I got involved with unicamp my first year because a friend like pledged me. They were like hey you know I think you'd be hyped up to do this. And I was like yeah you know what let's try this out. I'm just down with it. So there's different sessions.

00:22:56 - Each session has a focus group. One session focused on foster youth. Another session focused on science camp or there's a camp that focus on mental health. One of them on like college and career like higher education. And the camp I focused on was on African American or black students through an

00:23:22 - Umoja program. So it's educating not only the students like the youth who identify as black and African American about their history but also educates like the campers or the camp counselors about you know where are these kids coming from, what's their history, that's also acknowledged a black community and African American community. That was my first year. My second year I got involved with Underground Scholars Initiative which is a student organization first chapter that started at Berkeley and kind of like spread it out different campuses that you know create a safe space and social awareness for folks who identify themselves as formerly incarcerated and system impacted accessing higher education. What are some of the key takeaways that people can learn from this program that you can talk a little bit more about here? Yeah so the

00:24:13 - Underground Scholars Initiative was a student org back in 2016-2017 at UCLA campus. Later in fall 2019 it became an official program on campus so the university acknowledged that this is an issue of students that need financial support or emotional support like just general support the university can offer and what I got from it was well I only think of my brother when in this situation because he's formerly incarcerated. I've met many formerly incarcerated individuals on this campus.

00:24:56 - They've been locked up for 13 years, 10 years, five years and they went through community college route, they transferred to UCLA now they're earning their bachelor's, they're getting their career set and it's crazy like it's crazy and I say this because you don't get to hear this story a lot. So that's why I really want to like emphasize and what I got from it is that there's no timeline.

00:25:21 - There's no such thing as timelines like don't let someone tell you like you have four years to complete and then it's time to make a decision. I have no time to waste. This is just the beginning of my life.ā this you have two years to complete that um no man you're doing your life you're the one living it so you should set up your own timelines and i met really amazing people who i definitely will call family before i move on um do you think that i've missed or you want to talk a little bit more about any part of your journey that would be beneficial to talk about yeah i think i just kind of if it's okay um to kind of emphasize about like what the student org is about so like the underground scholars initiative or what we call usi um it's hard for folks to understand what incarcerated or system impacted is so i think those two words i really want to emphasize like um incarceration can fall into like a lot of categories whether someone has been in the juvenile system someone who's been in detainment centers someone who's been in prison county jail um any of those or even encampment that's incarceration it falls into like a huge spectrum system impacted is someone who's been affected by mass incarceration by a loved one or a friend or a close individual i identify myself as system impacted for having a loved one who is currently in prison so there are students who um who might not completely understand like the two definitions and it's something i really want to emphasize because i didn't really know what system impacted meant until i started sitting in the student org and someone told me like yeah you're system impact and i was like well what does that mean like i don't understand so we get thrown around all these different labels and it can get very overwhelming when you don't pace yourself when you try to understand your self-identity i didn't know that so i mean thank you for sharing that with me and i think it puts a little bit more into you know learning new things allows you to gain a little bit more of new perspectives um so once again thank you and now moving on i want to talk a little bit more about if you were to do this whole thing over again what like what would you do differently would you do anything differently um yeah that's a scary question to ask if i were to do this all over again what would i do i had no control of my life like i couldn't control being homeless i couldn't control who gets locked up around me i couldn't control where i lived or where i sleep um i don't think i would change anything because it made me who i am um i think i'm super emotional sympathetic but also like resilient when it comes to this situation and i will definitely keep my story because i can tell other people who have no control of things that happen around their life that you know there's some sort of hope i think if i were to go back though like I'll probably get another degree push myself a little bit more but no um I think if I were to go back and tell myself as a kid like like I would tell myself like hey dude like just wait 10 years just be patient wait 10 more years like your life is gonna get so much better like I wish someone told me that as a kid like hey your life is gonna get better soon don't worry so that's what I'd you know I tell people but I'm like you gotta work hard for your life to get better too because you also don't want to leave them hanging so yeah I was actually gonna ask you that like if you were to tell something to yourself in the past what would you tell yourself and I like that answer is like be patient and work hard um I hear that's like a reoccurring theme um that I've heard from my guests like if you work hard and you keep on working hard like you're gonna get somewhere um and let's say someone came up to you and told you that you're special and that you're one of a kind what would you tell them?

damn thanks man you're special too for saying that what if someone put you out there to tell me that yeah um I wouldn't know like I'd just probably like thank them and say like you know for what you're doing it's also special um because I think we as individuals forget to kind of like give ourselves a pat on the back or also give other people pat in the back and be like you know you also got this you're the this on your own or what is that community support that's what it is like community support is like the hugest thing because that's how you're able to like pick up one another be like no you're falling let me pick you up bro like you got this like oh look i'm tripping oh don't worry it's okay we can pick you back up right knowing it's okay to like fall pick up fail um and i also mentioned like i started with the 1.0 at smc like like i had people out there who are just like no it's cool i seem worse and i was like why like is this supposed to reassure me like uh this is so funny but yeah i i asked because i think that there's an assumption for of those who have done something amazing as you've done and gone on this like journey that it's assumed that they are automatically special and that the person who is thinking about it can't do it so i think it's reassuring for someone to hear like the person say i'm not special i mean i'm special but you're special also um it's like a powerful thing that motivates people to say like like the the old old age saying like if they can do it i can do it yeah and is there any oh sorry you're sorry no that that's what's so great about having like femtors and mentors like like we or i can say particularly like i idolize like these two individuals i'm always looking up to them like oh my gosh like i have a mentor and a femtor like i'm just looking up i'm like oh my god they had similar lives like me they look like me like that's so amazing like um and i still have them in the back of my mind because um they're very close to me i'm able to ask some questions hit them up um but you know people have different kinds of like mentors and femtors they can be like i look up to like this superhero or this individual but you know our superheroes are so close to us like and we just don't know it we forget so also like acknowledging yourself and acknowledging the people around you um i think that helps a lot we don't need someone who's sitting into this higher up position we can just also have people around us who are doing grassroots works i think i find that very powerful can you explain what a femtor is oh yeah so it's just um a mentor like the word it's basically a female mentor or a woman a mentor but it's also just kind of elevating like a woman's perspective by like getting rid of the men in the mentor and putting them in it might not be like the exact way i'm pretty sure people are going to be like no i think there's a different way to say no but that's from my understanding but you know i can always learn something new if someone tells me hey what i think i'm like oh for sure okay yeah i mean i just learned to know that that was a thing so now i'm going to use that because i agree like everyone has a different perspective that should be you know cherished and um looked up to um and so now i kind of want to give you this opportunity to just kind of like maybe to thank people um and i know that there's so many people on your journey that you have to thank let me start popping up my list hold up no no there's a lot of people want to thank um for sure i'm very thankful for my family for the emotional support and the hard labor they always put into um that you know they didn't abandon me like i was able to have the opportunity to be around them i definitely want to as i mentioned two orgs kid city and hope place and the ymca ketchum or ketchum ymca um my two well my mentor my fem tour is like lara kular and sergio ortiz they're amazing people um and the person who was able to create my home uh the bruin shelter is a person who was able to create my home uh the bruin shelter is a person who was able to create my home uh the bruin shelter is a person who was able to create this room and just love what he can do he is a great person to share this this is ludacris louis i appreciate him and lastly the underground scholars initiative where i was able to identify um understand a whole different side of my identity that i am slowly still discovering and able to support my brother who was incarcerated emotionally so those are the people who i always want to elevate for sure um all these people i've bumped to yeah to to end off is there anything you want to share with the audience just do whatever you have to buy you want to say for those who are listening to your story today man you do you fools uh so for folks who are listening right now i really want to tell you like you know your life your choice your timeline your time frame um please don't let someone i mean consent right consent's the biggest thing but um when someone is creating a barrier for you not to access these resources and it's telling you no and doesn't give you any hope why would you want to put yourself in that kind of environment like you got to rethink and reevaluate that um find someone who can motivate you and for sure be open to constructive criticism like um there are people who really want to teach teach you and really are there to like um for you to learn something new and one thing i like to tell myself at the end of the day or the beginning of the morning like oh i learned something new today like all right like even after this podcast i learned something new i learned something new about juan the work he's putting into so um be as optimistic as possible i know you might find that person annoying but you have to have someone like that around you definitely build community support please cool uh well thank you for coming on to this podcast i really really do appreciate it and i think that your story i know that your story is going to affect so many different people yeah for sure juan always appreciate this and i'm really glad i met you through linkedin thank you for joining us and hearing this truly inspiring story feel free to follow us at first few podcasts on linkedin twitter instagram and facebook to get previews of our weekly episodes as well as other content that you might like so i'm going to be real with you i didn't think starting a podcast was going to be this difficult so if you're interested in joining our team being a podcast guest or simply giving us feedback and comments so that we can improve in the future you could dm us or click the link in our bio to learn more once again this is juan perez and you're listening to the first few podcasts i hope you have a great day and come back next week for more amazing poc stories you