Peniel Rodriguez
Learning to overcome the obstacles and knowing how to get back up is what really
matters. I had to go through several tough situations in school to be where I am at and I could not
be more satisfied of myself. I am currently in the top of my class and I am involved in several
extracurricular activities. In today’s society, a high school diploma is no longer enough to get a
decent job. The reason why I chose to attend the University of Texas at El Paso is because their
engineering program is outstanding and I plan on majoring in mechanical engineering
Furthermore, UTEP was ranked amongst the top 7 universities in the nation and have an
incredible engineering program as well. When I found this out, I knew that UTEP would be my
best choice because I knew I would get one of the best educations at a very affordable price. My
dream of pursuing my mechanical engineering career seemed to get closer every time and
achievable.
In addition, ever since I got into high school, my dream has been to graduate top one
percent of my class and so far I am meeting my goals as the salutatorian. I have had to sacrifice
many things in order to achieve this and I do not plan on giving up my spot to anyone else. I am
also proud to say that I am the varsity tennis captain and have had an outstanding season. I can
also say that I a part of the robotics team and that I was one of the founders of the program. We
had a really good year by placing fourth in the state competition.
Throughout all this time it has been hard to maintain myself where I am at. When I was a
child I did not know a single word in English because I was taught Spanish at home. When I first
came to school in the United States, the transition from Spanish to English was really difficult
for me. The teacher made us start from the very basics; we had to learn the alphabet in English
and know how to pronounce every word correctly. At first it was hard to communicate with other
children in school because I had a really hard time thinking and arranging everything I had to say
from one language to the other. I was quickly discouraged when other children made fun of me
because I could not pronounce a word correctly or because of my thick accent. But as the years
passed, I learned how to use that to my favor. I constantly told myself that I was better than them
because I was bilingual and I wanted to prove them wrong and be able to speak and write
English perfectly fine just like the others.
All in all, I have thrived in the activities that I am involved in and I want to keep striving
to maintain myself in the same successful position.