Gabriel Pedroza

I'm currently a College Student at Eastern New Mexico University majoring in Business Administration and specializing in Accounting. I was born and raised in a low-income family in Dallas Texas but moved to New Mexico following my older brother to college, Texas Tech. Three years later, my family decided to follow my older sister to Provo Utah as she was going for a bachelor's Degree in Biochemistry at Brigham Young University. As I began High School there, I started to involve in different college credits to build up on College. I also began working in my first jobs to save up for a car and other important things I needed to do. My first job was with my father as a Cabinet Installer, where I learned the art of Architecture. It was pretty difficult to deal with kitchens in Million-Dollar Houses, no mistakes could be made. A couple of months later I quit for school purposes. Education has always been my priority and I've never lowered grades for job purposes. A year later, I decided to get a Part-Time Job as a Food Champion at Taco Bell. I've always been a hard worker and support fast-paced jobs. However, my parents got separated for family/religious purposes, so my father had to move back to New Mexico in November 2021. After that, I began to struggle with my mother and sister asking me to pay for rent as I was over the age of 18. Since I was still a Senior in High School, my job was not enough. I decided to run away and try to look for a home on my own. All the savings I had for a car were now gone, and I still had the dream to finish High School with over 40 College Credits and go to College. I knew that was not possible to live with my mom and work Full-Time to pay rent. I called my dad so that he could help me, which he did. I moved to New Mexico and graduated from Portales High School. I then applied for Eastern New Mexico University and got enough Scholarships to not be in debt and afford all my expenses. Two months later I was also able to work for the college as a Student Hire in TRIO SSS Student Assistance/Peer Mentor, where I learned lots of different professional ways to assist other students with information. However, I decided to also become a Math Tutor, as I had many College Credits done in High School. I wanted to be able to help students in College just like me so that they could be just as or even more successful. Trio SSS wouldn't allow me to be part of both groups, so I ended my debut there. I am still a Tutor for 4 hours a week, but I figured I also needed more hours to successfully have a nice Part-Time Job, so I applied and got hired in Something Different Grill as a Dishwasher working 12 hours a week. Now I continue my work and study here and thanks to my hard work, now I can see the blessings of it. I'm still a first-Year student but have already graduated with an Associate of Arts from Eastern New Mexico University going towards my Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and working hard towards my goals.