Where My Life Goal and NCUD's Purpose Align

Achieving a Ph. D in Psychology from Stanford University has been my life long dream.  A dream that I hope someday will turn into reality.  Of course just hoping isn’t good enough; it isn’t going to take me anywhere.  Anatole France put it perfectly when he hesaid “To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.” Accomplishing my dream will not be ‘pan comido’ (a piece of cake), as the Latinos in my community like to say when something is easy to get.  I will have to figure out how to juggle the responsibilities at work, be a single parent and a student. The hardest thing I will have face has nothing to do with the rigorous application process or the finances needed.  Believing in myself will be the hardest part; believing that I can finish the program once I start.  Having my family support me will also be difficult. There is nothing harder to face than your own family and loved ones discouraging you from doing something that you love or strongly believe in.             

            Working for NCUD is another thing that my family does not support due to various reasons. They do not understand why I have a job that has nothing to do with my degree in Psychology.  I explain to them that I might seem irrelevant now, but that I’m gaining a new set of skills that might be useful later on in life.  Working for NCUD provides me with the opportunity to practice my listening skills and to deal with people facing tremendous stressors due to being at the verge of losing their homes to foreclosure.  I am often meeting people who are in the midst of making some of the most important decisions of their lives; weather or not to purchase a home for the first time, repair their credit or move out of the community. 

Being able to help people in my community is something I greatly value.  Whether my family understands it or not, NCUD’s mission and mine align.  NCUD seeks to provide financial education and counseling to low socio economic communities to help them achieve financial stability in the future.  My goal in life is to attain a Ph. D in Psychology and to provide counseling services to the people in my community to help them achieve their overall psychological well being. 

-Carmen Reynaga