Hi, my name is Elias Treviño Cross. I recently graduated high school, and I will be attending Montclair State University in the fall to pursue a BFA in Acting, a lifelong dream of mine since I was ten years old.

The reason I have chosen the path of the actor is because I believe that the arts are just as important as any other job. We cannot have a society that thrives without the arts. They nourish our soul, feed our imagination, and strengthen our creativity. This is what I ultimately seek to give back to the world.

However, the reason why I'm here is because I am the one that will ultimately have to pay for college by myself. I have been able to get both internal and external scholarships and have sought employment to try to pay for my tuition. However, I still will find it incredibly difficult to be able to afford attending university, and my parents have threatened to drop the whole concept of going to any college in the first place. I also have ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), which makes everyday life difficult, and my family believes I'm not ready for the real world. However I would like to prove them wrong, and being able to attend university and get a step into learning what it's like to have to do things for myself is just the way to go.