Change Starts With Oneself

Change Starts With Oneself

"The more you compare yourself to others, the more you hide what your true self looks and feels like. The more you doubt yourself, the harder you make it to go after your purpose in life."


Jennifer Ramos

Bakersfield, CA
  • South High School
  • BA: UC Riverside
Early Interventionist Specialist

I am the youngest of four siblings, and a product of two immigrant parents. Since the age of 14, I watched and helped my parents sell at our local Kern County swap meet in Bakersfield, CA. I remember my hands getting so numb from the freezing cold during the winter as my parents and I unloaded the merchandise we sold. We would wake up at 4am and head out in hopes of making enough money for rent and household essentials. I understood at a very young age that nothing in life came free. Therefore I knew I had to work! Growing up I did not have parents who forced me to go to school nor did they ever have to ask if I was going to attend college, and that was because I always enjoyed school and did what was expected of me. Being that I watched my parents struggle, I knew that I had to be something great. As a young girl I saw my education as an escape of all my problems, and as an opportunity to do better for my life. When working at the swap meet I remember always daydreaming about going off to college, in hopes that someday my parents would no longer have to work at the swap meet because I would someday provide.

One of the greatest challenges growing up has been having family members undergo an addiction. The hardest part has been watching someone I know turn into someone I no longer recognize. Though I do not suffer from addiction it does pull the entire family in, and therefore everyone is affected. I have gone through depression and anxiety for this reason, and during my years in college, school life got too stressful and my homelife did too. I got to a point where I no longer felt strong enough to continue. I was highly considering dropping out of college, and going back home (Bakersfield). I had to seek several mental health services to work through my trauma, and realize that dropping out of college would more than likely lead to one of my biggest regrets in life. To this day I still suffer from these traumas and receive services. Nonetheless, my sophomore year, I did what many Latinos would say, “Me puse las pilas” (I refocused my goals and did what I had to do to succeed). I learned what self-advocacy meant. I started applying myself and took great advantage of the resources on campus. I began to make my healing my responsibility by bettering myself. Again, I used school along with my faith to better my life.

With resiliency and faith, I managed to finish college with honors. Some highlights from college were that I studied abroad in Spain and also got a job as an English teacher for Spanish elementary students. I completed an internship with the California Department of Education: Government Affairs, here I studied how educational bills were passed and I joined in on several conferences that pertained to how COVID was affecting Californian schools. Being that my part time job was not enough to pay for my rent and school expenses I applied to several scholarships and received over $40,000 in scholarships. My intentions are to not boast about my accomplishments; instead, to have them serve as a reminder that you can overcome past systematic barriers to achieve greatness.

The most impactful person in my life was named Gary Fussel. I worked for Gary’s small business of selling snow cones all throughout high school. When I left for college, he constantly checked in on me. Gary genuinely believed in me and saw the potential in me when I could not see it myself.

In my freshman and sophomore year, I faced several mental battles but knowing that Gary wanted me to finish college and see me walk the stage was all I needed to keep fighting. In college Gary knew I was taking the Greyhound home and back which took about four hours, and wanted to make my life easier and gifted me a huge blessing; a brand new car. He always wanted nothing but the best for me. Gary was my angel here on earth, and though he has passed on to another life, I am forever grateful for how much he changed my life.

Jennifer and Gary posing for pic

Currently, I am an Early Interventionist Specialist. I work with toddlers 0-3 who have delays and or disabilities. My work provides resources for children who have speech, gross, and fine motor disabilities/delays. I am constantly learning more about disabilities that hold stigmas, specifically Down Syndrome and Autism. Due to this job, I am beginning to perceive life through a different lens. As an education major, I forever want to pursue a career path that provides resources and genuine love for children/students that most need it.

If I can give some advice it would be to know that your life circumstances do not always have to dictate the course of your life. You have the power in you to not repeat generational cycles. Your pain, trauma, and sadness can be used as a catalyst to drive you to do better and be better. That being said, be the first person in your family who changes the cycles and creates new ones. Be the first to study abroad, leave home for college, to address microaggressions like anti-blackness comments at the family table, and seek mental services. Change starts within your family, community, and most importantly within oneself.


Advice to younger self:

  • • Simply because you join every club on campus does not mean it will get you into the college of your dreams. Dedicate yourself to three clubs and really pour your heart into them. You’re young and need to enjoy your last years as a teenager. That being said, join clubs that highlight your passions and because you simply enjoy them.