 So when I grew up, I was always surrounded by the same people with the same background, with the same heritage. So maybe at that time, I did not have a sense for understanding the importance of celebrating that heritage and kind of understanding that it is important to other people until I came to the States where now I'm no longer surrounded by people of that are like-minded, that have the same background, that have the same values, and then seeing that especially in the classroom as a TA, I have found that it is important for students to feel represented, to feel that they have a sense of belonging, to feel that they have a family in a sense, and that is important in their motivation and their effort that they put in the classroom. So I guess from that sense, I have seen the value later on in my life of celebrating Hispanic heritage and adding a lot of importance to that. So I think it's important for students, for people, not only for students but in general, for people of all kind of levels of society as well. When they are part of a society that is so mixed with different cultures, maybe some of that sense of family might get lost and it is important to remind us where we come from, what are our values, what is our culture, arts, music, values, and essentially our roots. If we come from a Native American background, if we come from a mixed background, for example from Puerto Rico, we are a mix of three races. We have the indigenous from the island, black people that came from Africa, and then of course the the Spaniards that came in colonized. So it's a mix of three races and understanding that and why we came from that is important to understand who we are as well and why we belong in a certain place in society. Because I was in a classroom where I teach students from this underrepresented background, I feel that it is important for these people to understand that celebrating Hispanic heritage, having activities where students from these backgrounds can participate in, is important to develop that sense of belonging, that family, especially when they're going through hard times here at the university, maybe they're by themselves for the first time. Having that core structure of friends and support is important to even finish your degree and graduate. To have enough motivation and enough drives to get through that. Throughout my process here, I've had several mentors and one of the big ones has been my professor, my PhD advisor professor, Andres Arrieta. He's Colombian, so he's from Hispanic heritage as well, and he understands some of the struggles that maybe we go through when we're here by ourselves, and has also been instrumental in maybe helping me understand all the tools that I need and providing that guidance in terms of research and in terms of developing a path in academia.