Making our mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. It takes patience; it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failures along the way. The actual test is not whether you avoid this failure because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it. I have been preserving my entire life. I have overcome every obstacle that has been thrown my way. No one should have to flee their home and leave everything behind because of their skin color, ethnicity, or religion. No one should have to reject field trips, live in fear, or be unsure of their academic or professional future. I want to be the one to show the world, not tell them, that being a war-refugee and undocumented isn’t a disadvantage. Instead, it is a motivator. It helps you discover the virtue of hard work and perseverance.

My journey to decide to go into law is unconventional. Read about my story in an op-ed I wrote that was published in the New York Daily News titled "Please Let Me Stay in America."

At this point in my life, I know that this sponsorship of diversity and deep desire to help the less advantaged are more important to me than a salary. I have been training, have proven my ability to apply schoolwork knowledge to real-life situations, and am ready for this next step in my professional life, and doing so at Rutgers Law School.