Kenny

My name is Kenny, born and raised in Bronx, New York. My parents migrated here from Latin America, with absolutely nothing but the dream to live a better life. Undeniably, upon arrival it was a scary culture shock for them to make this major transition. They could not speak English and did not know anyone or have any experience that would help them excel here in the States. As I think back on this, I realize that not much has changed since my parents arrived here; simply hard labor to make ends meet. Every hard earned dollar went to provide the opportunity to make something out of my first generation born American status and to make the best out of every opportunity provided to me as an American citizen. Breaking the mold to make my future generation all the more better.

The desire to make my parents proud drove me to attend college full time. I landed in Queensborough Community College and my current major is Liberal Arts. Straight out of high school I worked in the financial industry for several years managing stock accounts, mutual funds, many different types of bank accounts etc. By coming back to school, I sought to develop my knowledge in general academia aside from business and to that regard choosing Liberal Arts was the right choice. I find value in every course and subject, however, my favorite course by far was elementary to Hebrew. It was my highest academic challenge and I loved that. My dedication and studious ethic allowed me to speak, read and write in this language in just a few months. This was a major accomplishment for me; over three courses in two full semesters I was the only student out of one-hundred plus others to receive the honors certificate of achievement award at the annual honors convocation ceremony. I have learned that nothing is ever too difficult; you just have to familiarize yourself with the subject matter.

Being a Fellow at NYNY allows me the opportunities to see my areas of strengths and weaknesses, this provides me the layout of what I’m good at and what I’m not good at, narrowing down the industries I may land in. Thus far, NYNY has allowed me to realize my compatibility with the business field and when I get to my four year college I plan to pursue my bachelor’s degree in business administration. One of my future goals is to be fluent in six languages and attaining this degree will broaden my spectrum for many business opportunities.  After my four year degree, I plan to pursue my MBA and hope my linguistic skills will genuinely make me a distinct candidate for new opportunities. As a NYNY fellow, I hope to gain sufficient knowledge to avoid trial and error situations and have a clear path to walk where I can see the end of the tunnel.