Jessenia Hernandez

Jessenia is a senior at Rutgers University and currently studies Marketing. After years of figuring what career to pursue, she finally decides she wants to be a web designer. P.A.C.E has helped further Jessenia's education by taking her to programs that specialize in writing college essays. This helped her get into her dream school, Spelman College. Unfortunately, after her first year, she had to transfer due to financial disabilities. Stories like Jessenia's motivates P.A.C.E to raise money to support their students. Jessenia has now volunteered with P.A.C.E and provides marketing advice, along with designing their website.

Her Story

When Jessenia arrived at P.A.C.E, she lacked confidence.

“I didn’t really know what I was good at. I just kind of didn’t think about too much of anything... especially college.”

Jessenia was going to be the first person in her family to go to college and when she began the journey of applying she didn’t know too much about the process. She had no idea how she was going to get into her dream school, Spelman College, in Atlanta. Spelman college is the top HBCU in the country.

“Many of my friends that are older than me applied to Spelman but none of them got in. I was nervous and was considering not applying at first.”

P.A.C.E organized “field experiences” so that Jessenia and her peers could visit a plethora of schools, including schools in Atlanta, to see what institutions caught their interest. P.A.C.E also organized meetings to connect Jessenia with P.A.C.E alumni who graduated from Spelman, as a means of encouraging her to apply.

Finally, the P.A.C.E College Counseling team worked extensively with her on her personal statement so that it could be in top-tier shape.

“When working on the personal statement the college advisors didn’t rewrite my story, but they helped my voice come out clearer. Sitting with them made the application process a lot simpler. Looking back on it, applying by myself would have been a lot more work.”

With that application, Jessenia was accepted to her dream school, the top HBCU in the country, Spelman College.