Marvin Jake Espino
Quick Facts
Age: 19
Pronouns: He/Him
Major: Science (undeclared)
Notable: First-generation student
Other languages: Tagalog
Transfer Institution: Associate of Arts DTA, Olympic College
“Civility is the act of showing compassion and polite gestures to yourself, your community, and overall society. Civility comes with active listening, openness, fairness, and the will to actively construct good relations with other people.”
Service & Work:
Prep Cook, Kiana Lodge, June 2021 - Present
Awards & Honors:
Dean's List
Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society
Marvin’s Story
My name is Marvin Jake Sagum Espino, and I am a 19-year-old first-generation Filipino-American. I was born and raised in Silverdale Washington, a small town I call home. Growing up as a first-generation Filipino-American, I had to overcome many obstacles in my life that many of my peers did not. The obstacles I had to overcome made me a stronger, more determined person to succeed both personally and academically. My parents are immigrants from the Philippines. The cultural and communication barriers my parents faced resulted in me helping them navigate everyday life in the United States. I saw the adversity and discrimination my mother faced and vowed to create inclusive, equitable spaces of my own when I got older. I don’t see my upbringing as a child of Filipino immigrants as a setback; instead, it came with challenges that I overcame with hard work and perseverance.
When I was younger, I didn’t care for school. My young eyes didn’t see education as important or beneficial in any way. Instead, I saw school as a place where I could hang out with friends and mess around. It wasn’t until my mother pulled me aside one day with disappointment written all over her face that she saw my grades. At this moment my mother told me that she came to the United States to give her future family a better life filled with life-changing opportunities that are not present in the Philippines. After hearing my mother's story, I wanted to do the best I could in school to make her proud. I knew that if I did well in school, her hard work on getting to the United States would pay off and not get wasted. Getting bad grades was my fear because I knew it would bring that disappointed side of my mom out again and on top of that, I felt like a failure. Having that pressure of trying to be a perfect student for my mother had a big toll on my education journey.
Throughout my education I would see bad grades as a complete loss; it was like the end of the world to me. I went years in school having a negative mindset towards bad grades. It wasn’t until I heard a quote that truly changed my life and the way my mindset worked. The quote is “You never lose, you either win, or you learn.” After hearing that quote, it really resonated with me. After hearing that quote, I applied it to my education realizing that getting a bad grade was not a losing experience, rather it is a learning experience. I went on in my education career with a never-losing, always-learning mindset; and it really made me look at education in a more positive light. I later applied the quote outside of school and into my daily life, and I’ve become a more positive version of myself.
At the end of the day, I believe everything has a positive outcome; it just takes time and practice for your mind to adapt to it. I think everything is positive. I owe all the thanks to my mother because I can never think anything is negative because of the world she has built up for me. I am utterly grateful for what my mother has done for me, and I use that as fuel to keep pushing me to do great things in life. I am inspired by my mother’s hard-working mindset and resilience and I appreciate what she's endured to give me a better life in the United States. My mother still has broken English today, and many see it as a representation of her knowledge or intelligence, but I see it as a product of her bravery and love for all the sacrifices she made for me. I adore my mother, and I am blessed to have her in my life as she guided me to be the strong and devoted person I am today.
Mission:
I find the function, study, and anatomy of the eyes both fascinating and vital. An optometrist personally impacted me at a young age. For as long as I could remember, I saw the world as a blur. At the age of 5, my optometrist confirmed that I had poor vision. I remember reading lines of letters and having trouble deciphering what they were. When my optometrist put the phoropter (giant adjustable glasses) over my eyes for the first time, it changed my life. I have never seen things so clearly! I remember having a big smile across my face when I got my first pair of glasses because I was finally seeing the world in a clearer view. After receiving my corrective lenses, my life took a positive turn. I saw things I wasn’t able to see before. The event of acquiring my first pair of glasses was life-changing. Becoming an optometrist will allow me to positively impact other people in the same way my optometrist did for me. Vision is one of the many ways we interact with the world, and the ability to see can positively impact lives.
Goals:
Providing health care to underserved communities as an optometrist is my dream. My short-term goal of acquiring a bachelor's degree in Biology at Seattle University will give me a strong foundation in the field of health science and will prepare me for a postgraduate optometry program. I want to use my passion for science to my advantage to give eye-care treatment to those in underrepresented communities, as vision is vital and most people take it for granted until it is taken away from them. I believe that everyone should be able to see the world with a clear view, and I want to be the one who gives people the gift of sight.
