As a daughter of Costa Rican immigrants, Jessica Fuentes-Cerdas hopes to be the first in her family to graduate from high school and pursue further and higher education. Through different volunteer work such as translating, elderly assistance, and leadership involvement in the youth group of my church, Jessica says she has had the privilege of engaging with people from diverse age ranges, cultures, and backgrounds. This in turn has allowed her to gain a greater understanding of the importance of inclusion, open-mindedness, accommodating others, and ensuring everyone feels welcome.Jessica believes these are important characteristics regardless of the environment, and are skills she desires to practice regardless of where she finds herself or what she is doing with people. Jessica says it is her aspiration that she masters these traits in pursuit of the knowledge and skills she needs to reach her goal of becoming a compassionate nurse. Jessica was awarded a Kirkland Rotary Diversity Leadership Scholarship.