Hello my name is Balbina Azalea Lugo and this is my story.

• I am currently 19 years old with a long journey ahead of me, I was born in Houston, Tx, and currently live in Garden City, Kansas. But I will forever be a Texas girl. I am proud to say I am from an extremely small and loving town with great people!

Ever since I was small child I knew I had a passion for Fashion. My journey began with a single Barbie doll, I remember being so bored with the same clothes that I had for my Barbie doll... So my mom decided to buy me more Barbie dolls. As I look back, I recollect my happiness --I finally had the chance to put together clothes and mix different styles and such. I started to become bored of that too so I would cut out pieces of toilet paper squares to make white wedding dresses. I continued to do this but with old tablecloths and various cloth materials like clothes, curtains, and etc. Looking back on this gives me the chills because I was so small with a such a great passion for design in clothing. I was about 6-7 years old not knowing that what I was doing was called Fashion, Designing! While growing up I did not have much knowledge about school, my parents did not know much about eduaction either, much less, college. They only knew I needed to further my education to be better off than them. My parents taught me to continuously do my best and always take chances. I grew up thinking all I needed to do was pass all of my classes with decent grades and graduate high school to get my diploma. Neither of my parents had one so receiving one was good enough for me. Additionally, I knew college was not for me because it was too expensive, but I really wanted to go. I knew in order to reach my goal in life... "my dream"... "my very own business"... I really had to go! I knew I could get financial aid, but even at that I still had quite a bit to cover. A year had gone by, I had gone to several college visits and learned countless information about college. But I still had no idea where I wanted to go. A semester had gone by, still nothing. I reached my last semester, I had an idea of a school to go to near home. I had already been talking about this school since the beginning of my senior year but did not really want to go to there. My second to last month of high school came by.. and suddenly, within two months of thinking I changed my mind, after receiving a scholarship opportunity to go to school in Kansas. Two years later, I can now say I am on the edge of graduating a Community College here in Garden City, Kansas. I am collegiate athlete here and I participate in several leadership clubs and do volunteer work as well. I had to work hard to get here because I know nothing comes handed to you. My next step is to attend an Art Institute. I want to become a Fashion Designer and I will do whatever it takes to get there. This school has great opportunities that I envy and desire to partake of, I am currently saving for this Art Institute, but the money that I save up and the funds I receive from various scholarships will still not be enough. But with your help I can assure you, I will not let you down. This is my dream that I will continuously work to achieve. With this degree, I plan on designing several clothing lines that will hopefully one day become known, nationwide. In the future, I would love to incorporate a men's line as well. I believe woman designers are best for men's clothing because they know what they want to see in the opposite sex. To continue, it has without exception been my purpose of traveling around the world and testifying God's word, while providing my personal designed clothing apparel for the elderly and many diverse families. I have a need to be met  --that is to encourage, motivate, and lend a helping hand to others. With that being said not only do I want to help others I do not even know personally, but I would be honored to give back to the community and those of you who have helped me.

Thank you.

B.L.