From ILC Alum Lucero Perez

Well to begin, I am currently in the winter quarter of my sophomore year. This quarter appears to be much easier than my fall quarter. My fall quarter did not go well academically, but I learned from my experience. I allowed personal family matters to affect me academically, which drastically dropped my GPA. I started off my sophomore year with a 3.3 cumulative GPA. It was not the best GPA but I was pretty satisfied with it. I planned on improving it, but as I previously mentioned I got distracted and my GPA dropped to a 2.8 cumulative. I am not proud of my performance since I will have to take a class over in the spring quarter, which holds me back on getting certain upper division courses. However, I do not see this as the end of the world. I actually learned from this experience. This quarter will be different. I am seeking help from my professor more often and I currently go to drop-in tutoring for certain courses that I need help in. I am doing my best to raise my GPA to a 3.0 this upcoming quarter. Even though it may difficult to do so, I am very confident.

Although I preformed my worst academically last quarter, that was not the case in other aspects. I am currently the Co-President of Corporate Relations of the Latino Business Student Association on campus. I was able to organize a couple of events with my peers and it was a success. I have been able to network my way to great companies such as Ernst and Young, Google, Cisco, PwC, etc. I was able to learn a lot about what I need to do to improve so I can make myself more attractive to companies such as these. I now have an idea of what they are looking for which really pushes me to continue challenging myself to become more competitive.

Aside from academics and extra-curricular, I have come to realize the importance of keeping an organized agenda. Last quarter, I did not write down everything that I had to do throughout the day, which I feel really affected fall quarter’s outcome. 

This quarter is different. I am more organized and I feel more in control of my day. I am changing my priorities but most importantly I am drawing a line between personal matters and academic responsibilities. I realized that my mistake was focusing on my family’s problems too much. It really caused stress and a huge distraction in my life. At one point I really wished that I had gone farther away from home, so I could escape my family’s expectation to go home every other weekend. Santa Clara University is only an hour in a half away from Richmond. Even though I am not that close, I still feel pressured to return to help my family back home. One very important lesson that I learned was to communicate my feelings. I needed to let go of all the problems going on back home and focus. I have come to realize that worrying does not help solve anything; it only makes things worse. So, I would really advise future ILC students to try to focus on their education while they’re at school and realize that the problems happening back home sometimes can’t be solved.

At one point in my fall quarter, I really wanted to drop out of college. I felt like I could no longer afford the education I was being offered and I began to question if it really was worth it. I realized that I could easily get a job and make money to help my family out, but then after speaking with one of my close friends and advisors I realized that dropping out of college was not the best option. I have to hang in there because it will be worth it in the future. I realized that I would be able to get a higher paying job after college, but most importantly I would be educated. I want to be able to learn more things everyday and being in college is one of the best ways to do so (although it is not the only way).

Overall, I am not proud of my fall quarter but I am proud of the person that I am today. During the winter break, I made sure to get myself back together and come into my spring break very determined and ready to do my best. So far, things are going well. I hope to have a better story for next quarter. I am shooting for a 3.0 cumulative.

Until then,

Lucero Perez

Santa Clara University

Class of 2015