My name is Ahriyah Marrero. I’m a 17 year old female student from Bronx, New Yor

My name is Ahriyah Marrero. I’m a 17 year old female student from Bronx, New York. I have danced since I was 4 years old specializing in salsa, bachata, contemporary jazz and hip hop. I have a dedicated passion for dancing. I have had amazing opportunities being on a travel dance team to travel for dance and perform in many states and countries. I’ve always wanted to work with children, specifically early childhood education. I am interested in majoring in speech pathology. I have also experienced a great deal of loss in the last year which has impacted me tremendously. My step father who helped raised me was tragically murdered in July 2023 and six months later, my beloved grandmother passed away on Christmas Day. My grandma was a bilingual special education teacher for 35 years in the bronx and apart of the reason why I want to work with children is because of her. She was extremely dedicated to her job and she loved to be a teacher. My mother and I lived with my grandmother until I was 8 years old and that’s when my mother met my step father. They say it takes a village, but both my grandmother and step father were really involve when it came to helping my mom raise me. Losing them has been a very big challenge for me because I have never experienced loss until their deaths. Being in high school, looking forward to graduating and achieving certain goals, it makes me sad that they can not physically be here to witness it all.