About Me
WHERE I'VE BEEN
Hello, my name is Michael! I grew up in a small Los Angeles city known as Lynwood in a home with two parents and seven siblings. My community is one that is often identified by its symptoms of poverty such as substance abuse and gang violence.
Alongside these issues, the public school system within the community has difficulty coming into partnership with its student body. It was not unusual for faculty to tell its students that academic success was unlikely, therefore attainment of a higher education became all the more desirable for myself.
I enrolled in a college preparation program known as AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) which met me with the resources and information needed to ensure educational success. The program helped me get accepted into a small Christian Liberal Arts school known as Biola University.
WHERE I AM
While at Biola University, I majored in Sociology and found myself particularly drawn toward the study of low-income communities and why it seemed the people in these cities and their communities were at a disadvantage when it came to providing their families and residents the resources needed for growth.
In my study I found the correlation between wage gaps, income inequality, and families of a certain criteria that were wrongfully denied housing which directly impeded the ability of families and communities to meet the needs of their own and ensure economic growth.
I discovered a deep passion i had to be an advocate and partner with those disenfranchised and without a voice to receive the resources necessary to secure the opportunity for educational success and social mobility in the class ladder.
WHERE I'M GOING
The best way for me to be an advocate for change among the disadvantaged is for me to make systemic change. I will be going to Graduate school to receive my Masters in Public Policy. My desire is to dig into the structural short-comings of social reform to re-evaluate, develop, and fortify this system.
Alongside this, to educate people on the misconceptions of reality of The end goal being to be a contributor in the further expansion of a system that operates on the determination to provide its people with tools that spur educational empowerment, hope, and healthy families and general residents who live in authentic community with one another.
