I grew up in a row house, surrounded by other houses, surrounded by an urban sprawl of similar houses dotted with strip malls on the outskirts of San Diego. My father drove to work every morning and my mother stayed home and knew all her neighbors. The most secondary education anyone in my family has achieved is my father's bachelor's degree. He combined his military experience and work experience to verify certain requirements and completed evening courses to earn the rest while I was a child. Like my mother, I married soon after graduating from high school, eventually finding work in banking. As a young newlywed, I could only find work in retail at the local mall. I had to get into banking by completing a free county "Regional Occupational Program" course to learn to work as a bank teller, where we practiced cashing checks out of shoe boxes with Monopoly money. Shortly thereafter, I found a job answering phones at a small bank in San Diego, then moved to the real estate finance department where my salary remained stable for the next five or six years. I saw many graduates get promoted above me, some of whom I had even trained as new hires. I never thought I could surpass my father's educational level, especially since I didn't have the benefit of his military experience. As a young married mother, the rhythm of my day was certainly different than my mother's. My days began before dawn, rushing to daycare, going to work, and rushing back in reverse order in the evening. I walked into my garage, pushed a button to close the door, and never met my neighbors. I didn't know what "community" meant. I hadn't experienced it. Ultimately…half of the paper…for low-income housing in Whatcom County. Now I know what I'm capable of doing and now I know what I want to do. I want a career that helps people like those people downtown who don't have a warm place to stay, people like Juan and his mother, and people like my parents who find themselves running out of options. I don't want them to feel marginalized; I want them to feel like they are being productive and including members of our community. I want to attend Western because I want to enrich my city. I feel the best way to help achieve this goal is to earn a degree in Human Services and put the skills I gain to use right here in the community that has been so good to me. My dream job is to work at a local agency that facilitates housing for the underserved in Whatcom County. Please accept me at Western Washington University. This is where I want to live and learn.