The Right Words to Say by Kimberly

The Right Words to Say by Kimberly - August 2025 Scholarship Essay

I enjoyed going to parent teacher conferences. While they were meetings meant for just parents and teachers, I found myself tagging along most of the time. My mother spoke very little English and made it very difficult to communicate with my teachers. Therefore, I became her personal translator. At a very young age, I learned how to translate important documents and was taken everywhere to help alleviate the language barrier that was present between proficient English speakers and my family.
I always thought that my career path was going to be dedicated to Early Childhood Education. Becoming a teacher had always been my dream. When I was a sophomore in high school, I became a part of the first cohort to establish the Teachers of Tomorrow Program. Here, we attended classes during our summer break that were dedicated to learning about child development stages and classroom management. We also gained experience and worked in classrooms with students during the Summer Academy. I was involved in this program for three years and managed to impact improvement with students that were part of our English as a New Language program (ENL). These specific students began learning in small groups and I directed them during math and reading lessons. While we connected through language and experience, there were times where they had difficulty connecting with the rest of the class. Again, language barriers made them feel inferior and caused them to have little to no participation during class activities. As a result, I created educational games that reinforced our lessons in class. This not only helped them practice what they were learning, but made them look forward to coming to class and having fun. As the program moved through the summer, students slowly began to become comfortable and even attempted to communicate in English. Hours of hard work were beginning to pay off. By the end of our summer season they had learned hundreds of new words and could properly make small sentences. I now work full time at the Southampton African American Museum. Recently, we had the Intermediate School Summer Academy students visit and many of them were students I had worked with. They came in and had the biggest smiles on their faces when they recognized me. I can happily say that I have influenced the lives of children through education and that I am slowly breaking language barriers.
I also hold a part-time position at a retail company, Marshalls. Many of my co-workers are also only Spanish speakers. There are many instances in which customer service cannot be delivered because of the inability to understand the English-language. I developed very close relationships with everyone I worked with and made sure I made myself available for anything they needed. Most of the time, they called me over to translate and to teach them how to properly operate day to day tasks. Through my interaction with each individual, I was able to slowly teach them the basic words needed to understand the general concepts of the English language. This included but was not limited to training someone for a higher position and encouraging her to learn more English. When I came back from college, many people thanked me for teaching them and told me that everything was very influential in their roles and responsibilities. This showcases that even while I was away, an impact was created that helped many not only gain access to higher roles but also gained more opportunities.
With the fall semester approaching, I’ve gained many positions on the Executive Board of different student run clubs. However, my biggest goal this semester is to become the founder of an All-Inclusive Language Medical Terminology Club. Our mission would be to provide students the ability to learn medical terminology in different languages in order to ease communication in a medical setting. I plan to further pursue my education in veterinary medicine and become a veterinarian specialized in surgery. I want to become part of the 5% of Hispanic veterinarians and ensure that all communities gain proper access for care for their pets. Before I do, I want to ensure that the incoming medical professionals receive prior experience that will help communities with different language backgrounds understand procedures, symptoms, and diagnoses. In honor of being a first generation Latina, I hope to inspire and break barriers that limit opportunities for those who have difficulty with language.