Coming from a minority background I've always noticed that there are unique difficulties that minority students face more often than non-minority students. In addition, a personal goal of mine is to help minority students be more academically successful, especially helping out with the Hispanic community. This is why my research interests focus on educational inequality and most importantly the effect of adverse childhood experiences (ACES) on academic success. Being in this program has tremendously helped me improve my knowledge of this research topic and being a better researcher.