Letter of Recommendation Request
1. Full Name : Estela Abigail Soriano Aparicio
2. Date of Birth: June 15, 1999
3. What colleges will you be applying to and why?
I will be applying to California State University Northridge, UC Merced, UC Davis, UC
Santa Cruz, California State Los Angeles, California State Dominguez Hills and California State
Long Beach. These Universities have a specific field for which am interested which is sociology.
They all have also in common the field of Spanish Language that I am looking forward to have
as a minor or even a double major.
4. What do you want to major in?
One of my passions is learning how humans interact with each other and even though we
come from different cultures and backgrounds we find a way to communicate and interact with
each other. Throughout my high school years, I have grown and develop my skills to their best so
far and one of the majors I pursue to have is Sociology, I like interacting with people and having
the opportunity to help others is one of my passions. By the time I reached 11th grade, I had the
honor to take an AP Spanish course which helped me to develop my skills for which it was also
my first language. I enjoyed practicing it and writing in Spanish for which I got an interest in
teaching it. Hopefully, I would be able to double major on it, but if not a minor in Spanish will
do it.
5. What career do you want to pursue and why?
I would like to be able to be a social worker; I believe helping people has always been
one of the things I enjoy doing the most. I would also like to have a major in Spanish and be able
to teach it. During my high school years, I learn to help my peers and noticed that I enjoyed
helping them not for the fact to believe that I was smart as some might have putted it, but
because it made me feel good. By the time I was in my junior year in transition to my senior
year, I have the opportunity to start working at a Subway Restaurant; this opportunity helped me
in various ways such as developing my communication skills and living my shyness back. I
started to become more outspoken off course with discretion as well. I became more social and
my customers service skills started to get stronger. By the time I was in my first semester of my
senior year, I figured out that the best way to emphasize those skills by working in a field that I
would enjoy was by studying sociology with a career pathway to become a social worker, or
even a counselor either at a hospital or school. I believe that my passion is helping others for
which I have chosen this career pathway.
6. Please list your top five qualities.
Determine
Responsible
Hardworking
Independent
Sensitive
7. What makes you unique and different than any other student?
I believe that everyone is unique in their own way, for me I enjoy working hard for
success. Even though I might fail several times, I like to continue trying till I reach my goals.
Something that makes me unique in my opinion is that I work hard and am not afraid of failure. I
believe that resiliency its a very important quality on a human being because without the
perseverance and the willingness of it you will not reach success. In addition, I consider myself
someone who likes to challenge themselves, coming to this country was not easy for me it came
with many challenges such as making new friends, doing good in school, learning a new
language, adapting to the new a new culture and diversity of people and although that was a
struggle when I was on my junior year in high school I decided to start working part time for
which I started working at Subway. As time passed, my performance at my job was really good
so my manager offered me a full eight hour shift with a total of 40 hours a week; I accepted the
offer but I knew I will struggle during my senior year although I really wanted the position that
was offered to me as one of the official closer at the store. Am still working that position while
studying and I know if I put dedication and time into it it all will come out good.
8. Discuss any struggles that you've overcome? (personal and academic; include both).
One of my biggest struggle was learning a new language. When I came to this country I
was only 11 years old and adapting myself to a new environment was not easy, at the beginning I
was bullied a lot but I never said anything. I believe that this experience helped me in a big
manner because it gave me the strength and the courage to want to get better and to be able to
progress. Although, it was a big struggle, I am grateful for that because thanks to that now I have
reclassified from my ELD class with an Advanced score on my CELDT test scores. Furthermore,
I believe that one of my struggles personally has been to know what i'm worth and that I can do
better than what am giving. During my middle school years this happened a lot I would be really
submissive to my bullies and not say anything, but as time passed and high school came along I
learned to stand up for myself and although not defend myself physically because I dont think
violence is the best answer I learned to make things stop. I learned to look at myself different in
the way that I knew I was worth something and that theres a always reasons for things to happen
since things might not always come out the way we want them to.
9. What is your vision for the world?
My vision for the world is a better place for everyone nowadays we can see many
violence around us that we have to be looking around us to make sure we are safe. Many people
would say that a specific race matter, well I believe that all races matter and all genders but we
are just not use to see certain things and humanity is afraid of trying to be better. Not only a
better place but also a place that is fair and can not be corrupted by the money. We can see how
money has become the main base of everything and how powerful it can be in general. In
addition, Equality is very important, many people have prejudices and prefer certain things over
others. We need to understand that we are not the only ones who matter.
10. What is your philosophy of life (thus far)?
So far, my philosophy of life is that we work hard for what we want to achieve. Since our
early years we have dreams of what we would like to be when we grow up and sometimes our
dreams stay the same but its always up to us in the work we want put to it. Life is a treasure, but
we need to learn how to take care of it. I understand that success needs to be work hard for and
that every act has a result in our life. We can not be making wrong choices all the time because it
becomes a habit a habit that can result in a bad way that could later on affect us in a big manner.
It is okay to make bad decisions because we learn from it, but when it becomes to make it a habit
then its really wrong. I believe that doing evil on purpose its not good for ourselves, it slowly
kills the the humanity inside you.
11. What are your hobbies?
Some of my hobbies, that I enjoy are drawing and reading. I barely started to get
interested in drawing because of my art class but I believe im average at it but practice is all I
need. For me reading has become one of the best tools in my experience, although at the
beginning it was hard for me to understand, I can now say that after not giving up reading has
been a great help to improve my english skills. In the other hand, besides books my favorite
hobby is watching movies am a fanatic of romance and drama and although lately I dont really
have time to watch movies its always good to take a break.
12. List your extracurricular activities, sports, community service, work experience, and
volunteer service; also, please state if you have held/hold a leadership role.
Extracurricular Activities
Interact Club
National Honor Society (NHS)
Yearbook Club
Christian Club
Track & Field.
Community Service
Holiday Care Package
Jim Gilliam Child Care Center (Spring Festival
Jim Gilliam Child Care Center (Pre-K Graduation)
Rising Aztecs Community clean up
Volunteer at College Fair (Gear Up)
Cleaning the classroom ( ASGL)
Heal the Bay
Pumpkin Patch
Laundry Center
Work Experience
Babysitting
Sandwich Artist (Subway)
13. What is your GPA (overall, not current)?
My GPA overall I believe its 3.75
14. What are your SAT scores (including subject) and ACT scores?
SAT= TBD
ACT= TBD
15. What is a life well-lived?
I believe that a well-lived life is one where you achieved many things in which you worked hard
for. Have the happiness and the pride to say yes, I achieved that, but success is just one part of
it. Sometimes, even the smallest details makes a difference in our life such as spending time with
your loved-ones.
16. How do you define success and joy/happiness?
In my opinion, success is one of the causes of happiness. I believe that success comes after a
journey of a lot of hard work in which we might have failed several times to reach for, but it's
always up to us whether we want to reach our goals or give up once we fail the first time. I
wouldnt describe success as fame because not everyone has the dream to become famous. For
me success is to be able to achieve your goals and dreams for which you have put effort into.
