My name is Gabriela Miranda and was raised in the San Fernando Valley. I am a first generation Mexican-American with parents who immigrated from Mexico. My first language is Spanish and I am the first in my family to attend a four-year university and graduate school. In 2012 I graduated from UC Riverside and majored in Philosophy, with a minor in Spanish. During the three years after graduation I interned at Public Counsel in their Asylum Clinic and worked at a family law and immigration law firm. Due to my lack of understanding of the law school application process I knew it was necessary to ask for help. I applied and was accepted into the UCLA Law Fellows Program and was chosen as a Sidley Austin Law Scholar. Both programs allowed me to learn the application process and greatly alleviated the costs associated with applying to schools and studying for the LSAT. I am attending UC Hastings School of Law so I may begin to pave the way for other students of color to achieve a higher education. I want to become a corporate or tax attorney so I may represent my culture in a field of law that suffers from a lack of diversity. Ultimately I want to empower individuals in my community and protect their small and/or local businesses.