Elia Montes

81 Madrid Ave | Moriarty, New Mexico 87035 | (505)-832-2362 | emontes2@unm.edu

Application Essay

My strongest motivation for applying to the HACU National Internship Program is that I would
like to gain direct experience in accounting. I would also like to be part of the HACU
program, because I believe it would be a great way to enter the business field. I believe I would
be a good candidate because in my previous job as a hostess there I gained
great organization skills, exceptional customer service. I am fluent in Spanish and I am an active
listener.

As a child, I remember going to Mexico every summer and Christmas. As we got to the border,
the weather would stay the same but the people would change. We would see children selling
gum and candy to make a living instead of going to school. There was always a lot of people out
on the streets without food or shelter. When we got to my dads town it was very peaceful and
everyone was always very welcoming. However, you could see the pain and tiredness in their
eyes. The children would get out of school and go help their parents either in the fields or
feeding animals. For the children education was less important than working. Seeing all this
made me appreciate everything my parents have done for me. I am thankful for all the
opportunities we have. When we saw those children working we understood that we didnt need
Christmas gifts, there were others who need more things. My dad would always take blankets
and clothes for his family but there were many others that didnt have that. I would enjoy
travelling a lot and help third world countries.

I am currently a sophomore seeking my bachelor's degree in Business Administration at The

University of New Mexico. My goal has always been to do what I love in college, overcome the
challenges I face, and to make my parents proud. I want my parents to be proud of me because
they have put a lot of effort in seeing me succeed and that will be my way of giving back
to them. I like to push myself to achieve my highest potential.

One of my career goals is to travel to South American countries to provide resources and educate
Latino families and children. By creating a non-profit organization, I want others to seek an
education to better their way of living. I want other people to have the opportunity to become
successful instead of being another negative statistic.

Thank you for taking the time to consider my application. If you have any questions, please
contact me at emontes2@unm.edu.
Elia Montes
81 Madrid Ave Moriarty, NM 87035 | (505)-306-7774 | emontes2@unm.edu

Education
University of New Mexico | Albuquerque, NM | Aug. 2016- (May 2020)
Bachelor of Business Administration, Accounting GPA:3.6

Scholarships
College Assistance Migrant Program Scholarship Recipient | 2016-2017
New Mexico Legislative Lottery Scholarship |Aug. 2016- present

Experience
Roadrunner Food Bank | Albuquerque, NM |Volunteer| Nov. & Dec. 2016
Supervised other volunteers
Provided scheduling and logistical support
Sorted donated foods

Sanchez Farms | Albuquerque, NM | Volunteer | Oct. 2016- April 2017

Provided landscaping including weeding and fertilizing
Painted tables for use in the park

Nacho's Restaurant | Moriarty, New Mexico | Hostess | Nov. 2016- April 2017
Created a welcoming and clean environment
Greeted customers and presented menus
Served drinks and arranged table settings

Languages
Spanish
Speaking: fluent
Writing: intermediate
Reading: fluent
FROM: Elia Montes

TO: Professor Zanders

DATE: September 21, 2017

SUBJECT: Assignment 1:3 refection

In this document, I will be discussing my progress though this assignment. We were asked to
complete the requirements for an internship or job opportunity. We had to include our resume,
cover letter or application essay, and any other documents the application required.

I chose the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities Internship. Out of the internships I
researched, the HACU National Internship program was the one that interested me the most. My
College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) tutor suggested me to look into this internship
because she knew I was interested in being involved with the Hispanic community. While I was
in CAMP, the tutors goal was to be able to be considered for this opportunity and they
encouraged us to prepare to be able to apply as well. I believe this internship will give a great
opportunity at doing this because they help thousands of Hispanics find internships and gives
them the opportunity to start working and get experience in doing what they like. I do not regret
my choice because I believe this internship is more challenging and I think I can get great
experiences if I get the chance to participate in it.
Through research and

The most challenging part of this project was doing the research, because there are so many
options to pick from. Also, while creating my resume I had to cut out all of my high school
experience and it made my resume short. I have done some volunteering work but it doesnt help
because it was nothing related to business. For any other internship I dont think that I will be
able to add them to my volunteer experience. I only have one work experience but it also doesnt
apply for a business internship. Trying to make my resume at least one page was difficult, after
organizing my skills in a different way like my peers suggested I was still unable to complete the
page.

For my application essay I added a background story, because I wanted the reader to understand
why I am in college and why I wanted to be part of the HACU community. I didnt expect my
peers to comment about the skills layout on the resume. When I was in CAMP we reviewed our
resumes and they suggested to create a chart. I also thought that my peers would think that my
background story would be irrelevant. Both of my peers suggested me to look back at how my
skills were organized. One of my peers also suggested that I add references to my resume
possibly to make my resume a bit longer. Looking back at how my skills were laid out they did
look unorganized in the chart and it didnt flow with the rest of the layout. For my cover letter
Aaron Catanach said, it was well thought and organized and my other peer said she was able to
appreciate the thought and effort I put into the assignment.
The IA also suggested me to organize my skills in a different matter other than in a table. He also
suggested to either add skills that the internship was looking for or to take out some of the ones I
had that maybe the reader wouldnt be interested in. He also said I should add more information
to the volunteer experience such as, what skills I learned and how I could use those experiences
in my future career.

Some of the features from my classmates resume that I would like to emulate was the
organization. I would also be able to have more experience to add to my resume to become a
better qualifier. I think a lot of my peers had a more expanded vocabulary and thats something I
would like to improve on. Reading their resume did help me because I was able to fix my skills
to fit the rest of my resume. One of the resumes I revised had different fonts and different sizes
and that reminded me to constantly check mine.

When I revised my resume after the comments of my peers and the comments from the IA, I am
still concerned that the skills might not be organized or not fit for the internship. I feel like the
way I added the information to my volunteer experience might not fit the rest of my layout. Im
not sure if I need to expand more on the things I did for each volunteer experience.

I definitely feel more confident in the job search because I had great feedback from my peers and
IA to help me improve my resume. Also from the previous assignment I learned that some
internships do not require any previous experience. That has been my greatest concern because I
have only one previous work experience and the experience I gained doesnt relate to business
experience, which is what I need. I believe that with the resume I created in this assignment I
will be able to adjust later to fit any other job or internship.

I am encouraged and motivated to apply for this internship because like I said before it would be
a great experience to be involved in the HACU community. I think that I would also apply to the
other internships from the previous assignment. They all seem like great opportunities and the
best part some are local internships.

I believe this assignment was very helpful because it is something we will be using in the near
future. In some of my other classes we are learning help things but a lot of those things will not
be applicable until later in our careers. After this assignment, I feel more confident in applying to
any job or internship. Also, being able to receive feedback was important to me because
sometimes looking at your own work you dont see the mistakes you have made. I liked that we
also got feedback from the IA because he was more specific and helped me understand what I
needed to fix. I think the peer review example that was provided was helpful because I was able
to be more specific in what I thought needed improvement.

Best,

Elia Montes