From the time I was seven or eight years old, I knew I wanted to be an attorney. However, my path to achieving that dream has not always been clear or direct. Yet, I have acquired a great deal of wisdom from my journey.

I grew up in the Gravesend neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, and attended public school my entire life prior to college. When I was younger, my father was the sole breadwinner, providing for our family by working as a trash collector. His example instilled in me a strong work ethic and taught me to never fear getting my hands dirty – literally or figuratively – to get things done. Being that my mother’s parents didn’t give her a real opportunity to attend college or pursue her own career because she was a woman, my mother always told my sister and I that we could achieve any dreams we chased as long as we stay focused on our goals. Because my mother was our primary caretaker, we learned from her the importance of seizing any opportunity we came across. However, as a single-income household surviving on a sanitation worker’s salary, my parents never had a lot of money. We always had food on the table and a roof over our heads, but luxuries were non-existent. My family’s financial situation taught me how to be resourceful and grateful so that over time, I learned not to take anything for granted and how to develop my problem-solving skills.

Belonging to a family of blue-collar workers, neither of my parents and none of my grandparents attended college. In fact, my father never even completed high school, and my mother, due to dyslexia, struggled academically throughout her education. Hence, from an early age, I knew that some odds were stacked against me. But I also was determined to never let those statistics stop me.

Because I knew my parents weren’t going to be able to pay for my college education out-of-pocket, I worked extremely hard in high school to attain high grades. It seemed that my hard work paid off when I was accepted to my first-choice college, Fordham University. As a faithful Catholic, it was important for me to receive a Jesuit education where I would be able to openly practice my faith in a supportive school community. However, when my financial aid package from Fordham arrived in the mail a few weeks later, I was heartbroken; a portion of the tuition would not be covered by my grants, scholarships, or federal loans. My family was expected to somehow cover the remaining balance. I felt devastated.

At this moment, the Columbus Citizens Foundation stepped in and provided me with a four-year scholarship that would completely cover the cost of this balance. Overwhelmed with joy knowing that I would now be attending Fordham, I felt that the Columbus Citizens Foundation was taking a chance on me. The Foundation thought I had the potential to succeed in higher education and beyond, despite my background. As a result, and reflecting on the values my family had instilled in me, I felt a responsibility to work even harder than ever before to show that I was capable of achieving all the goals which I had set out for myself.

Attending a private university, resources were abundant, allowing me to have access to accomplished academics in every field, opportunities to conduct my own research projects, and small class sizes where I would receive individualized attention. I took advantage of every opportunity. As a result, my worldview widened and my knowledge expanded. In this environment, I thrived, ultimately graduating at the very top of my class from Fordham University’s College at Lincoln Center in May of 2016.

After college, I attended New York University (NYU) Law School on a full-tuition scholarship, where I was a member of the prestigious NYU Law Review and participated in four different internships during my last two years. As a student at one of the highest-ranked legal institutions in the nation, many doors were opened for me that I did not even know existed when I was a little girl growing up at the southern end of Brooklyn; at the beginning of my third year at NYU, I accepted a full-time post-graduate position as a litigation associate at one of the world’s top law firms.

Once I graduated from NYU Law School in May 2019, I relentlessly studied over the course of ten weeks for the New York Bar Exam. Once again, the lessons my parents taught me proved to be helpful, as I reminded myself that giving up was never an option – I had not come this far to only come this far. My dedication and sacrifices were worthwhile when I received the news that I had passed the Bar Exam on the first try. Only a few months later, in January 2020, I was admitted to the New York State Bar, granting me full license to practice law. At last, I was the attorney I had aspired to be for the past twenty years.

On the day of my swearing-in ceremony, after I stood in front of the court and took a sworn oath to uphold the law, I thought about my family. I reminded myself that it was about one-hundred years ago that my great-grandparents had fled their homeland, leaving all they knew behind for the chance to make a better life in America. My great-grandparents, peasants in Italy, suffered from hunger and lived in dire poverty. They were subject to exploitation and hardship. My grandparents, too, grew up in abject poverty and were raised during the Great Depression. They never had the luxuries we fail to appreciate today, like a new pair of shoes or heat during the winter, and they never had the option to continue their educations because they were forced to work at young ages. And of course, I thought about my parents, too, and all of the wisdom they had unknowingly imparted over my childhood.

Some days, it is still difficult for me to believe that I am now a corporate litigator, working at one of the world’s most esteemed legal companies in the heart of New York City. Some days, I wonder if my great-grandparents, when fleeing their homes, ever imagined that they would one day have a descendant who would achieve my level of success. Throughout my journey, I knew I needed to take the lessons I had learned from my family to sustain myself on this path towards success. I knew I had to just keep going no matter the challenges that arose because it wasn’t just about me. It was about those who came before me and those who will come after me. And so, while I work to support those who come after me, I also endeavor in all that I do to honor my ancestors who gave up so much so that I would never have too little. Because they gave up so much, I knew I could never give up, period.